Gimme Shelter
by J.A. Carlton
Summary: Dean learns the truth of what happened to their ally in India and struggles to cope with the loss while it becomes apparent that someONE or some THING is stalking them both. Angsty/Hurt!Dean, Angsty!Sam. Warverse compliant. Guests: Criminal Minds BAU Team
1. Chapter 1

Gimme Shelter – spn fic chpt 1.

by – sifi.

Disclaimed – Sad necessity of life.

Loved – a cool and blessed Hallelujah.

OOooOO

"Hey...c'mon in," Bobby swung the door open, something tight in his expression that said more than any of his words might just yet.

"Thanks." She nodded heading directly into the kitchen, a place of comfort for them both. "I need your advice."

"Well you _look_ like what you need is a beer and a shot," he nodded digging a bottle out of the fridge for each of them before rooting around in the cabinet for a half full fifth of Jack.

"Hell yeah."

"Did you get the guys that were after your acolyte?" he asked sitting across from her, waiting awkwardly and wondering where and when this conversation was going to go.

She smiled, "They tried to take him at Krishna's temple, but we had a little surprise waiting for them."

He nodded knowingly, smiled that sly smile he had sometimes and 'clinked' their bottles together. "I'da thought you'd go right to the boys." He hedged.

Her eyes dropped down, her gaze steady into the amber liquid in the bottle in her hands, "I told you I need your advice."

"About what?"

"Dean."

Bobby tilted his head to the side, his eyes squinted at her but he said nothing.

Laura lifted the bottle to her lips, "About a week after I got to India I found out I was pregnant..." she let the information lay quietly between them for a moment before she smiled, "Imdugud told you."

"Yeah the son of a bitch told me, then told me you made him swear not to tell Dean." he half growled then reached across the table, a conciliatory gesture in taking her hand, "I'm sorry."

"Thanks," she nodded.

"How are YOU?" he asked.

She shrugged and favored him with a weak smile, "Physically healed."

"You said you want my advice... what you really want to know is whether or not either I or Imdugud or Sam actually TOLD him isn't it?"

She nodded faintly, "You may not believe it Bobby but I think he would've wanted it." Her lips pressed tight and tremulously.

Bobby felt his throat constricting, he'd done everything he could to put the whole parcel of information out of his mind, he didn't want to know, he hadn't wanted to bear that burden. And he sure as hell wasn't going to be the one to break that boy's heart. _You're damned right he would've. Any boy that damaged would have wanted a chance to do it right in all the ways John never did for them!_

"I don't know if I should tell him at all if he doesn't already know, I mean why would I ever want to hurt him like that y'know?" She sniffed against the tears and running nose that seemed to have started out of nowhere.

She slugged back another hit of whiskey, "It can't be changed, it can't be undone..." she pressed the tears off her cheeks, "I couldn't..." she shook her head.

"What about _your _hurt?" He asked.

She shrugged. Long moments later the movement was followed by a deep sigh, "It's woman's business... not something the man needs to waste energy worrying about."

Between them the room fell silent and the air itself seemed to still as the senior hunter's jaw fell open and his expression exploded into disbelief.

"Eh...uh... excuse me?" he finally stammered.

She slugged on the bottle again then sat back nodding, "He's got enough on his plate to worry about. His own son was abused and violated, made to spawn a deific evil that will make Lucifer look like a lapdog... the last thing he needs to concern himself with is whether or not I can hold my own..." she leaned forward, "My incompetence failed him once, I won't have any more harm brought to him."

Bobby couldn't really have said why what happened next did so, but then again considering what he and his own wife had gone through... well maybe it just brought back memories that had scarred his core in ways he'd never realized. His hand flew across the table, the thunderous crack of his open palm against her cheek seemed to explode into the air long after her head snapped to the side. He leaned forward breathing hard, fury burning in his eyes and a rage he hadn't felt in over twenty years storming in his head.

"Don't you dare try to take the blame for what that bitch did!" he warned then shook his head, "How dare you! Who the hell do you think you are? What right do you think you have to decide it's 'not his business'! Last I recall it takes two t' tango... what the _hell _right do you have to deny him that knowledge? It wasn't just yours y'know..." he was just getting a good head of steam rolling when she looked at him, something in those jade green eyes, identical to Dean's sent a shiver through him.

"She did it so there wouldn't be any challenger to the throne. Any child that comes from him would have first claim to the throne whether it be born before or after any that comes from his son." She explained.

"WOULD YOU STOP IT!" he stormed, "Sam's his BROTHER! NOT HIS SON!" he shoved himself away from the table sweeping his cap from his head and rubbing his hand through his hair then down his face surprised when it came away wet. He leaned against the counter, unable to look at her for the moment.

"It's not the body that matters." she explained.

"I thought all that... Babylonian shit was done." He grumbled, his eyes closed though his face was angled upward as if in prayer.

When she made no reply he turned locking his gaze into hers, anger radiating out from every pore, "I wish you'd never brought this to them." he turned away shaking his head trying to understand and to fathom exactly who was to blame, "I wish you'd never even..." but he stopped knowing that statement wasn't accurate either. If she'd never come into their lives Dean would have been dead for just around four years, as would John, and Sam would certainly have followed soon after them both. So no, in the end he couldn't even wish that.

But it was too late. When he turned around she was already gone, his last near-wish the last thing to slip into her ears.

OOooOO

Sam sprang up, his arms swinging while his body bucked and his throat snapped closed on a gasp of dry air, "...n't!" hissed between his lips before this throat opened again and a deep drought of air stuttered into him.

A bottle of water landed on the bedspread between his knees while his wide panicked eyes searched the room until they found what he was looking for. _I gotta tell him. _He cracked open the bottle and drew from it, the sweet crisp fluid better than any ambrosia he could imagine as it pried open his throat and gave him room to breathe.

"...anks..." he gasped a moment later.

Silent Dean nodded, his eyes just resting on his little brother trying to fathom the torments inside of him.

"It's poisoning you Sam." He finally said.

The younger man nodded. He was right, this burden he was carrying was toxic and the longer he kept from sharing the weight of it, the harder it was going to be on both of them, and the more deadly it was going to be for Sam.

A memory flashed through his mind from a couple years ago, he was driving, Dean was in the passenger seat of the Impala, they were on their way to South Dakota, trying to save Laura from a suicide mission. She'd recently failed to save several pregnant women and was on her way to find out what was killing them and why. When it came up that the common thread was pregnant women Dean had lit up like a Christmas tree.

"_Oh man... don't tell me... she was... is..." he stammered, his eyes shining bright green and somehow lit from within as he gazed at Sam. _

"_What?" _

"_Is she pregnant?" _

"_Who?" Sam asked not having made the leap just yet. _

"_Laura!" _

"_What?! No!" Sam watched the older man's hope begin to fade, "At least not that was noted in any of her medical records as of this last surgery." He explained and suddenly his brother was just his brother again. That green-gold light that had seemed to explode from him for a moment was gone, leaving behind just a regular man. _

"_I'm sorry dude..." he never would have guessed that Dean might actually WANT to have kids some day. 'Course it does make sense though... someone to need him. Someone that won't leave him... I'm sorry Dean.' _ He remembered thinking.

"Lilith used me." He said under a shaky breath, his eyes downcast unable to meet Dean's even though he could feel the weight of his gaze, "She used Pipeline first, and then the Asag's _pure_ venom to jack into my powers and use them to do..." he shook his head, "horrible... evil... things."

Dean nodded, "I know." he said softly. In fact this was exactly what he'd told Sam when he'd first come around back in the hospital. Dean could feel the pain rolling off and out of the younger man. He'd been inside Sam's mind, lived the experiences with him as the bitch used what he had to force others to kill.

"She can kill... pretty much anyone on her own, with her own power... except us... but she can't make someone _else_ kill without help. She can't take away their free will..." he took another chug from the water bottle then continued, "refining the poison into the drug helped, it gave her access to their minds..." he noted Dean's furrowed brows and explained, "Asag's are demons of chaos and discord, their venom opens up psychic channels, opens up the potentials of the human mind... you know, that 90% we don't use?"

Dean nodded.

"Yeah, well it's like opening a spillway... people aren't ready for that, reality becomes what they think it is and since most folks have almost no mental control... it drives them insane."

"Okay," Dean nodded again, following what Sam was saying even though it wasn't anything he hadn't already figured out.

"When she... attacked Laura..." he shook his head wanting to crawl into a hole as what little determination the nightmare had stirred up suddenly waned. Instead he nodded, "But she's okay. That's what counts."

Dean felt something slam closed in the younger man and as much as he wanted to reach into whatever vault he had inside and yank it out into the daylight, he knew he couldn't. Whatever it was bugging the younger man, Sam was going to have to come to terms with it in his own way and his own time. All he could do was make sure Sam understood that Dean knew it wasn't his fault.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but I'll keep saying it as often as you need to hear it Sam, what happened to her is NOT your fault. You are NOT responsible for that bitch trying to kill her."

Waves of forgiveness washed over him, burying him in guilt and self loathing and in the same split second that his last bit of will to keep it all inside crumbled, the opening riff to some old AC/DC song came pouring out of Dean's phone.

"Lilith wasn't trying to kill her..." he breathed just as Dean frowned and slid the phone open.

"What do you mean?" he asked then answered, "Hey Bobby... what's up?"

"I mean it wasn't LAURA that Lilith wanted to kill..." Sam breathed shakily.

"Dean? I'm sorry son... I think I royally just screwed the pooch here." Bobby's voice shook on the other end.

"Well then who the hell was she going after? The Acolyte?" Dean asked innocently then returned his attention to their old friend, "What do you mean Bobby? What're you talking about?"

Sam watched Dean listen, then watched the color drain out of his big brother's face. He bounced out of the bed as the older man lurched stumbling for the nearest chair while holding the phone pressed to his ear, listening to the sound of part of his world crashing down.

OOooOO

Just outside the motel room window, a picture of Dean doubled over with his cell pressed to his ear shone on the back of a digital camera.

OOooOO

tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	2. Chapter 2

Gimme Shelter – chpt 2

by: sifi.

OOooOO

"Dean?" Sam reached out. His body was literally vibrating with the force of his heartbeat and his breath seemed stuck in his throat. He couldn't see the line of pink that held his brother's vitality any longer, once it fell below his collar leaving behind bloodless flesh the only color left seemed to belong to his clothes.

Dean shook his head, shoving himself away from the younger man while he worked to catch his breath. Everything seemed to be in a tunnel or maybe it was him, either way he couldn't bear to raise his eyes. He couldn't bear to look at Sam. He was grateful for one thing though, for the moment he was stunned numb.

He held out his hand, keeping Sam at bay as he slid the phone closed, cutting off Bobby's pleading voice mid-word.

"Dean please..." Sam took another step toward him.

Again he shook his head, a vague sound that might have been, "Mmno." slopped out into the room. He turned to the door.

"Don't please..." Sam pleaded his voice barely more than a whisper.

He stood stricken as the older man flicked his suddenly bloodshot green eyes over his shoulder every molecule around him humming with intensity. He held up his finger and shook his head, _you... of ALL people... KNEW and you didn't TELL ME? _he accused silently, "Mm mm," he hummed lurching out of the room and into the early evening.

From between the curtains Sam watched his big brother shuffle across the parking lot until he reached the Impala. He leaned against the trunk then pushed himself up until he was sitting back against the rear window. A second later he slid off the trunk, pulled his cell from his pocket and after a glance threw it hard across the lot before turning back and leaning against the driver door with his head in his hands.

Sam watched breathing hard, his head humming and screaming with 'oh god no's' and 'I told you so's' and whimpering pleas for forgiveness. Dean yanked open the car door and floored it, fishtailing that glass pack chop out onto the black asphalt ribbon and in the process cutting off a rapidly approaching car that turned, careening into a sideways slide into the motel parking lot while the car behind that one blared a momentary outrage before continuing on its way.

When the driver slid out of his car, breathing hard and his face a mirror image to Dean's own pale anguish, but otherwise okay, Sam dropped the curtains back into place unaware that just a few doors down at the end of the motel building a digital camera was clicking furiously, recording the near-incident for posterity.

When the driver was finally collected enough to leave Sam stepped from the room and about halfway across the parking lot, moving in the direction he'd seen Dean throw his cell, dialed it retrieving the device before returning to the room.

OOooOO

"C'mon one more... two hundred this time," Dean's grin was cold and shark-like while he swilled back another double with his right hand and in his left the cue stick rolled over his shoulder. In spite of the amount of whiskey he'd already consumed he caught the stick deftly at his side before taking it on a journey full of figure eights that ended in another roll over his shoulder and back into his hand.

The tweed clad Giles-wannabe he'd marked for a little fun shook his head, smiled gently and backed away glad to count his losses in cash instead of some other way. He'd watched this young man enter the bar, rack himself a table and start slamming shots desperately while he tried to focus enough to sink a few balls. Somehow, understanding something of how this young man might be feeling especially with his own situation so very recent, he'd asked to join him for a game. Now, Tweed knew he was a pretty fair pool player, but half a game into it he realized this guy was probably a pro, but the drinks kept coming, and the bets went from 5 or 10 bucks to 50 or more. As the evening wore on and the wins went back and forth, almost with a rhythm of their own while the young man poured more and more Red Label down his throat and his story stayed tucked deep inside, Tweed began to think he might just cut his losses and slip out, back to his grad-student girlfriend and just be glad when she wanted to cuddle tonight. There was something growing in the air around this man that told him to be glad he'd _have_ a tonight.

Course just as he was about to leave was when _she _came in, hips swaying as she moved almost in a straight line from the door to the young pool player. She grabbed his glass, slugged back his drink in spite of his booze-slick scowl and after downing it in a single gulp, grasped him by the face, ringing him with her arms as she tried to devour him with a single kiss that he eventually stopped trying to resist.

Everything would've been fine if that's all it'd been, he had to admit he was enjoying the show as the mini-skirted barfly backed the man across the room, into the little alcove where the toilets were. It would have been great if they'd just hung out in the back, macking like a couple of overgrown teenagers but the more he responded to the stranger the deeper this... pocket of... _something _seemed to grow.

Tweed was a man who listened to his instincts though, and they were screaming at him to get out of there. So getting out is exactly what he did while somewhere behind him, facing the furiously enraptured couple a sly smile spread as a camera captured the show.

OOooOO

As the moon reached its apex Laura pulled in to the motel's parking lot feeling weary to her very core. She couldn't really be angry with Bobby for his feelings. All he wanted was whatever was best for Dean and Sam, it was one of the things they had in common that allowed them to build a friendship. And it was okay that he didn't understand the history of their souls, that was why people were born clean, without knowledge of who they might have been before so that each life could be lived with a clean slate. She understood this as well as she understood the need to breathe, but it didn't change the hurt that blindsided her when he'd blamed her for everything. _It would have happened even if I'd never met them. _She thought then wondered not for the first time, _wouldn't it? Would the universe have arranged some other way to save them if I hadn't stepped in? Or would they be dead and with that... the universe would be safe... is their existence the reason all this has happened or would it have been someone else if not them? _These were the questions she'd been wrestling with on some level since the first time she laid her hand on his arm in her Emergency Room. _Would I change anything if I could?_

In the room she fell onto the bed grasping a pillow out from under the spread and clutching it to her, wrapping herself securely around it as the fresh scar tissue in her abdomen pulled and protested. She could still feel the explosion of white heat that had sucked the breath out of her when Lilith's demon form had done the impossible by piercing her body. She felt the confusion all over again that she'd felt when she saw the cloud of demon dust coming at her, it shouldn't be coming at her like that. There was nothing it could do, it couldn't hurt her, couldn't enter her... When Tommy fashioned her new body out of the clay of creation he'd drawn into her very flesh the same seal the boys each had, only making sure to put hers at the base of her spine so it looked just like a regular tattoo. But she hadn't counted on Lilith's literal connection to Sam or that the succubus would be able to wield his power. _That was my fault, I should have known, I should have sensed it... somehow I should have done SOMETHING..._

Curled around the pillow she wished was the man she loved, breathing shakily and feeling more empty than she ever thought a human could survive, sleep took her away for a time.

OOooOO

Sam slapped the paper down and closed the laptop unconsciously registering the time as he flopped into bed. It was almost 2 a.m. and Dean wasn't back yet. He knew it was possible he wouldn't return till morning. If he hit stride with a solid drunk Sam knew he'd probably just sleep it off in the car like he had so many times before. But this was different, of all the reasons in the world Dean had for getting stumbling drunk there'd never been _this _reason. _And he still doesn't know the truth. He still doesn't even know it was my fault. If I'd been able to resist, or if I'd only been stronger... she never would have been able to use me... and all those kids would still be alive... and I'd be on my way to being an uncle... and Dean could maybe for once feel like he's real. _He shook his head, _but I took that away from him... and from her. _A voice, as he began to drift off to sleep, that seemed to come from within and yet sounded like no internal voice he'd ever heard before wondered, _'maybe I let it happen on purpose...maybe they deserved it... maybe it's justice for everything this life stole from me...'_

His brows furrowed as he rolled onto his belly, his arm scraping against something sharp as it slid beneath his pillow.

"What the...?" interrupted his train of thought as he grasped the piece of paper and turned the bedside light back on.

He flipped the photo over and felt his skin break out in gooseflesh. His belly squeezed and his corners started to tingle as the image registered. The photo had been taken at Bobby's a couple months ago. He recognized the spare upstairs bedroom he and Kitsune had frequently taken refuge in once the war against Nergal and his forces had been won. The shot was of the two of them, both gloriously naked, Kitsune astride him, her back bowed and her arms around him, his mouth working hungrily at her breast while one hand held her to him and the other clutched the sloping mound of her rear.

He might have thought it was a joke, he might have thought it was Dean's sense of humor coming into play before this afternoon's catastrophe struck but there was one thing that sent shivers through him. In the photo, at the foot of the bed and technically behind him and Kitsune was the bedroom door that led into the hallway. From this perspective the shot could only have been taken from outside a second story window, where there were no trees nearby and no other buildings for at least a country mile on any surrounding side that could provide that particular angle.

Sitting up he scanned the room, then methodically searched it before tightly closing the room darkening drapes and spreading salt at any entrance then even going so far as to light up the palo santo and raise those wards as well.

OOooOO

She knew she wanted him from the instant he'd stepped into the bar and from the look of things he wasn't about to head back out any time soon. She had a way of reading just how long someone would need to self-medicate their hurts into oblivion, and this one was gonna be an all nighter. So she went home, changed into something that would appeal to a drunken young libido and returned.

She'd known instantly the beautiful black Impala was his, she'd never seen _it_ before and she'd never seen _him_ before. Her observational skills made her feel powerful as she prowled back into the bar and insinuated herself into his tortured world with certainty and took control of him. He wasn't in any frame of mind for control anyway.

From the passenger seat of that gorgeous classic car he reached over, moving his hand over her satiny thigh until it was sandwiched between them, he urged her legs to part just a little while his fingers slid the silk of her skirt upward.

"Almost..." she purred sliding his hand into hers as she parked in the driveway of a classic suburban two story, "C'mon." She smiled easing from the car, sure to lock the door and waiting for him to join her.

She smiled when his hand slid into hers and he nodded at the house, "Nice." To her surprise when she turned to lead him inside he held her back, drawing her into him. His arm wrapped around her back, pulling her close as he turned them until she was held firmly between his warmth and the cars.

He cradled her face in his hands and brushed her lips with his. His eyes were closed, squeezed tight she noticed, whether against her or whatever demons were haunting him she couldn't have said, and she didn't really care either. She had a thing for kicked puppies and this one was about as kicked as a guy could get before he went around the bend. She'd use him, he'd use her and in the morning they'd walk away from each other. It was how things went.

He leaned her back, one hand now behind her head, the other reaching down, finding the silk hem of her skirt and sliding it upward, his thumb effortlessly finding that nook in the crease of her thigh, gently pressing half circles toward her center, coaxing her to open for him.

"Wait... wait, wait... let's go inside..." she smiled tasting his lips.

"Mm just a sec..." he reached back into the Impala, grabbing the bottle and the last few drinks it contained. That voice inside that had tried to tell him to walk away back at the bar lay passed out on some old bean bag chair in the far corner of the back of his brain.

"C'mon honey," she smiled wrapping her arm around his waist, keeping him tight to her as they wove unsteadily toward the front door. A slim, gray, snakelike shadow hanging just under the eaves on the second floor skittered around the far side of the structure clinging to the vinyl siding before it disappeared from sight.

"Mmm," he smiled allowing himself to be led into the darkened house. Once the door was shut behind them he took the woman into his arms drinking her in while his hands shoved the jacket off her shoulders, then set about unwrapping the delicacy she presented herself as.

"This way tiger..." she panted drawing him into the living room and out of his clothes as they moved across the floor. "That's right..." she smiled easing him down onto the couch, her body quickening with anticipation at the sight of him as he reached for her, his eyes closed the whole time. He used his hands and body to guide him into whatever escape he needed from whatever it was that had savaged him so cruelly and she was just fine with that. This was her brand of self-medication after all.

OOooOO

Okay so maybe everything _wasn't _going just right. He didn't mind tossing a few games to the once-upon-a-professor but he was starting to think that maybe he should slow down on the Johnnie Walker, _heh... Johnnie... wouldn't dad just have a field day here... some friggin' Winchester I turned out t'be... can't protect my kids... can't protect my wife... well... my girl...and when the shit hits the fan I go out and get drunk... oh wait... I'm a PERFECT Winchester...prfffft... well I DID learn from the master... here's to ya'Johnnie boy... thanks fer nuthin'..._ he huffed raising the glass to his lips again and stumbling with the shift in weight. _Wonder if I'll just... tiiiimmmmmbbbeeerrrrrr.... or flat out faceplant... meh... whatever..._

So he was lining up his next shot and the next thing he knew there was some woman drinking his drink! _Hey!... Mmm heeey..._ he caught sight of those shapely silky legs disappearing under that lime green silk skirt, a tiny flash of taut little tummy as she leaned back just enough to polish off his drink, and soft fuzzy mounds that would fit just perfectly into the palms of his hands heaving under a cream colored angora sweater. _Oh God that's... that's..._ he couldn't think of a word as she smiled and cradled his face. _Mmm warm hands... soft... _then pressed her mouth to his juuuuuust right. Not too hard, not too desperate and not too teasing either. _Perfect... wait... wait, I can't..._ her lips closed on his bottom one, the tip of her tongue stroking the velvety inside just enough to let him know she gave as good as she got. _Oh yeah... that's sweet..._ then he tasted her back.

_MMm Sammy's drivin'? _he cracked open his eye, a heavy sour taste in the back of his throat warning him that he was gonna have hell to pay tomorrow. _That's DEFINITELY not Sammy..._ he felt the corners of his mouth pull into a smile and reached out to that warm supple skin. _Yep it's real..._ he rolled his hand forward until his fingers were sandwiched in the heat of her thighs. A tiny wiggle of his forefinger had her shift playfully and opening the gateway just a crack.

"Almost." She purred taking his hand in hers and holding it for a moment.

Shadows played against the outside wall of the house, something about it, the shape, the vinyl siding looked familiar, he glanced up and down the street wobbling in place and coming to an understanding, _Ah HA! Suburban tract housing... prfffft... that explains it... _

_Oooh...ooh... tickles... mmm... heh...mmmoookay... _he half stumbled forward, looking at the floor behind him. _s'my shoes... okay... bye bye clothes... _then looked up smiling with the realization that she was down to a bra and her thong. _That's what I'm talkin' about... _

"This way tiger..." her voice smiled as she led him to the couch and eased him down. "That's right," she said.

He closed his eyes, wincing against the images, the memories, the horrors that had simply leaped out of the dark corners. A woman he didn't know getting raped and mutilated, the same thing happening to a couple he didn't know. The twisted glee in Liliths' puppet's face as she tortured and raped his boy, a latticework of huge black welts on otherwise pristine skin that was always warm and willing for him. Bodies burning on pyres, more than he could count over the years, lips touched his. Heavenly full warm breasts pressed into his hands. Laura's body falling against his as the poison took hold, a belly breathed against his chest and neck. Blood flowed, droplets exploding on the ground in a fast running stream, warm wet heat sheathed him and his hips bucked. A black iron-like tendril shot through the air, impaling Kitsune to Sam, pinning them together and more blood flowed as a nipple found its way into his mouth while his hips beat and pulsed.

"_Now... sit." She smiled easing him down onto the pallet where warm fragrant, oiled water washed his worries and fears away. _

He grabbed her to him, holding her tight as he eased them off the couch and onto the floor. Her legs clamped around him, keeping him firmly locked inside as he lay atop her, his face pressed into the crook of her neck gasping as he drove himself home within her while water streamed from his eyes.

OOooOO

tbc.

please R&R.

Thanks.

sifi.


	3. Chapter 3

Gimme Shelter – chpt 3.

by: sifi.

OOooOO

"Mmm?" blue-green eyes snapped open, his gaze turning immediately to the motel room door. There was something on the floor. The faint scraping sound of that square being shoved under the door must've been what woke him.

Glancing around the room, _no Dean yet...damn!_ the bed was still made and the bathroom door was open. He hadn't been home and that meant Sam might have to go looking for him.

He stepped out of bed squirrelly twitching in his belly as he grabbed the square off the carpet and frowned deeply.

_That's my tie... where... what the HELL?!_ he thought trying to will away the goose flesh that broke out over his arms and chest. The satiny blue length of fabric he'd been missing at the hotel just a couple days ago sat on a steel looking table, neatly tied and displayed as if it was going to be put on a mannequin. There were no other features in the photograph.

_I sooo deeply do NOT like this..._ he sighed, "Come on Dean... get back here." Tracking him down would be easy enough even without his cell phone, after all he knew his big brother better than anyone. All he had to do was find a seedy bar with a pool table and suckers ripe for the hustling, which in a college town meant cheap, dark and just far enough off campus to be fairly comfortable for University staff to hang out.

Spreading the room darkening drapes he glanced at the ultra-bright sunny day outside and winced. His spine gave a twist as he set this new picture down on the table beside the laptop, skewed just slightly off the one of him and Kitsune. _I do NOT like this..._ he looked around the room, _okay, _then grasped the room key and opened the door, peering up and down the empty sidewalk in front of the building.

Barefoot he crossed the lot to the office and smiled sleepily at the young woman at the desk.

"Good morning." she greeted, smiling almost indulgently at him.

"Mornin'... did you happen to see anyone near my room door? Uhm... room 3? Woulda been just a couple minutes ago."

He measured her response, weighing instinctively whether or not she was even really thinking about it and decided that she was when she finally shook her head, "Not that I recall... we do have a couple with two children with them... if they bothered you I can ask them to take a different room." She offered.

Sam shook his head, "No... thanks..." he started to turn away but turned back quickly, "what time does housekeeping start making the rounds?"

"Oh not for a few more hours yet, they usually start around 10. There's plenty of time to go back to sleep if you want."

He let his eyes droop and smiled easily with a nod, "Thanks... do me a favor? If you see anyone..."

She shrugged, "I'll try to keep my eyes open."

"Thanks." He nodded and stepped back into the sunshine. _Alright Dean... where the hell are you?_

OOooOO

Pressure throbbed in felt covered waves outward from the center of his brain while sour acidic bile sat eating into the back of his throat. Something heavy, wet and just as hotly cutting moved through his belly, twisting and torturing his intestines.

_I know this feeling...didn't I say never again? I had to have... can I hold it off? Ungh... it's gonna be bad... can I hold it off? _He wondered through his partial consciousness, _I've been worse, I've been worse... Tampa was worse, _and his insides woke up, _nope... can't hold it..._ he pushed himself to all fours, glanced over the room swinging all around him, spotted a hall near the entryway and wrapping the throw blanket around his hips dashed for the only place it made sense for there to be a bathroom.

Burning spears of agony ran lengthwise through him as the sour stink of acid-rotted whiskey exploded out of him. _When was the last time I ate anything?_ _Did we eat yesterday morning? Mmm no... slept in... god that was nice... warm safe dreams, beautiful oblivion... so musta been at least the night before... what'd we have? _but he couldn't remember and thinking so hard really hurt as he leaned over to unleash another flood.

_Where the hell am I?_ The little hunter in the back of his mind asked while picking through last night's details to try and orient himself. A heavy weight blossomed in the pit of him somewhere between his low belly and his root as flashes of flesh color started to remind him. There was the taste of a faintly whiskeyed kiss, palms full of springy spongy, perky boobs, firm satiny warmth against him, astride him, full lips searching out his sweet spots and the blissful abandon he fell victim to. As it all came back slowly, each layer of lusty wanting and the long moments of dirty, heady debauchery revealing itself, a sparkly hot sense of guilt fought with his nausea. When the cause of the problem came back, and he remembered the spring that fed last night's pool of despair he groaned and rested his head on his forearm, Bobby's words ringing in his ear, _"I don't know how to tell y'this so best thing I can do is come right out and say it." 'Say what Bobby?' _he remembered thinking with a frown as Sam muttered "It wasn't Laura she was trying to kill..." _Bobby's still talking, did he just say? I think he just said, wait what? Hold on Sam, "...she thinks it's her fault Lilith was able to kill the baby..."_ there wasn't really much else he remembered hearing. He did remember the crushing weight in his chest that wouldn't let him breathe for a moment, _baby? Did he just say...? He did... she was... why didn't she tell me? _He'd glanced at Sam then as some vague connection was made through the field of brain-static, _Why would Lilith care if we were pregnant?..._ a second later he understood, _she didn't want theirs to have any competition. Did she? Will we ever be able to... why didn't she tell me? I was a dad. I would've been a good dad, I woulda tried to be. I _want_ to be a dad...That's twice now I've been robbed of what should have been mine... Ben should have been MY son... not some loser's who probably doesn't even know he exists...I could've been happy with them, I would've been a good husband to Lisa... woulda made her happy and we would have more kids...I would have made it work. _He sighed while aching somewhere deep and reminded himself, _but he wasn't mine... this one WAS... _a drop of saline plinked into the water in the basin, this time coming from his eyes. _Last time we were together was at Bobbys... ... ... _a few struggling moments later, after some basic math he nodded, _she would have just found out... and knowing her she would have wanted to tell me in person... _from deep in his belly guilt exploded through him leaving his otherwise waxy face blazoned with a deep red flush of shame.

OOooOO

"WHAT!" Sam barked stabbing the button on the phone an eyeblink after the ring started, but all he got was dead air. "Son of a bitch!" He cursed looking at the word "unavailable" on the screen.

The first time he got the call he thought it was a simple wrong number and hang-up. He even thought the same thing when it happened again a couple minutes later. The next time it started ringing, he let it ring wondering if maybe Dean was using the old phone code for some reason but it went to voice mail and there'd been no message or sound.

He looked at the computer screen and the record of calls he'd accessed from their carrier's site and shook his head frowning while he cinched his boot laces tighter. He startled, jumping when the room phone rang. His mouth went dry and a tangy metallic taste hit the back of his throat.

"'lo?" he answered already cringing inside at the thought of more dead air on the other end.

"Mr. Carson?" came the receptionist's voice.

"Yeah?"

"This is Erica from the front desk, we're holding a package for you, would you like it brought to your room?"

"A package? From who?"

"I'm sorry sir there's no return address. Would you like it brought to you?"

A frown twisted his lips as his belly gave a twitch, "No, I'll pick it up on my way out thanks, just hold it for me there willya?"

"Of course Mr. Carson, just bring an I.D. when you come to the office."

"Will do thanks."

The instant the handset hit the cradle, the phone rang.

"Yeah?" he sighed and found himself listening to dead air on the line.

Dropping the phone back into the cradle and quickly slipping the cord out of the back he shook his head, bit his lip and gave in to the shiver that ran over his spine.

OOooOO

Dean leaned hard against the bathroom door holding onto the throw blanket wrapped around his hips while he scanned the rest of the house. The whole structure had a distinct lack of energy to it. On the left was the family room but there was no tv, just behind the bathroom was a four step stairwell that would take him into the kitchen, and back around to the right was the garage, front hall, living room and elevated dining room just on the opposite side of the kitchen. Then to the right of that would be the stairs going up to the second level.

_Kitchen... God I am soooo not ready to eat... need bread and grease... nice big loaf of crusty french bread... lots of melted butter and some bacon on it would be awesome! _He turned the corner and stumbled over the blanket, _mmm clothes first._

_Why does this place feel so dead?_ He wondered then thought about it. He'd been in many places where there'd been dead bodies, ghosts, all of those things he'd been raised to hunt but no matter what it was... if it was about a death or the dead, a place had a distinct energy, especially a house. This place had nothing. _Not like it's 'dead' but more like it's never been alive at all...Ahh yeah that's it..._ he found his clothes draped over the back of the couch and knew it wouldn't have been his doing.

"Hello?" he called wincing for the volume raging through his head even though he knew there'd be no response. "Wheeew..." he grunted as he got a whiff of himself and grimaced. "Shower... food...Sam's probably freakin'... " he groaned pulling his shorts up the rest of the way and pushing himself up the stairs toward the main bathroom where there was sure to be a shower. There was nothing in the house to indicate that children lived here let alone anyone else. _It wasn't about love it was about comfort... why did I DO that? I may be a lot of things but I'm not a cheat... well except at poker or pool if I have to... but..._ he stopped and wondered about all the women he'd slept with in his life. Not one of them meant anything, not one of them was more than a delicious night's distraction, something to pull him out of whatever torment wouldn't stop chewing through his head, especially after Cassie. _"Y'know if you don't want to be with me you don't have to lie Dean! Just leave!" Cassie hollered pointing at the door. _

_He shook his head, "It's not a lie Cassie... this is what I do..." _

_She wheeled around, her hands on her hips, "Y'know what? I'll make it real easy for you...Get out. Just get out and don't bother coming back!" _

It was the tail end of a fight that'd been going on for over an hour and they were both exhausted. Finally, feeling like a fool, with his dad's assertion that no one would understand what they do ringing in his ears Dean realized that she wasn't going to give him a choice. Once that hit home he turned around and left. After all, no one kept John Winchester waiting, especially not one of his sons when they'd been called to 'heel'.

After that, he'd stuck to doing the job and prowling the cities and towns they worked through like a tom cat, every bit of connection used for whatever tiny teasing drop of human contact to help keep his sanity. For a long time he'd convinced himself it was all he needed, that he could live like this for as long as it took. _Course I never expected to live this long._

He moved through the up stairs hall, peering one by one into the meticulously made and kept bedrooms, finding the order a little more than creepy. It was the same feeling he got any time he squatted in a model home.

"_You going out with that girl again?" _John had asked one night while they were in Twin Falls.

"_Maybe." He answered from the motel room door. _

"_Don't get attached." _

"_Don't worry... I'm past that." Then he'd just driven off into the night, found himself a nice tuck in at the local forest preserve, parked the Impala and spend the night drowning in heavy metal and whiskey leaving John to think whatever he wanted. _

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed watching the knob for the shower spin uselessly against the wall. "Shit." and suddenly he was sure he could've spat out half the Sahara he was so thirsty. "Tell me there's something in the fridge..." he groaned sliding into his jeans and pulling his shirts on quickly.

For five more years he'd been obliviously content to trail along beside John whenever the old man would have him, or to nibble off the crumbs of cases he saw fit to toss Dean's way. _I never DID know if he sent me on jobs so he could just watch how I handled things, if I handled them they way he wanted things done... or if he really thought I was capable... wouldn't surprise me if he'd been following behind and watching. _He sighed and finished tying his boots trying hard to think about anything but the night he met Laura.

He could still feel death hovering all around him, closing in on him as the EMT's raced him into the emergency room. His heart was stuttering in his chest, misfiring like an engine with a loose timing chain and he could feel himself drowning both in his own blood, and panic. He'd woken up for a few seconds in the car and Sam was gone. John was there, bloody and unconscious but no sign of Sammy. He had no way of knowing where the boy was or what had happened to him and he was scared.

_It was all so simple then. We were just three guys being tossed around by powers a lot bigger than us. I think I wish she'd let me die that night._

"_Easy there tiger," clear amber eyes smiled into his as warmth and calm slid up his arm and into his chest. His heart beat seemed to catch and hold a proper rhythm and it began to slow and grow stronger, the veil that lingered at the periphery of his vision retreated while words he could no longer remember were said, and finally healing darkness left him to rest. _

"_Am I a ghost?" he remembered asking some time later as he looked around at the cluttered desk. _

"_No," she'd smiled, "You're a self aware slice of your own consciousness that's temporarily hanging around in my head." _

"I should've known nothing would ever be the same after that." He sighed opening one of the two bottles of water from the otherwise empty fridge and chugging it down. "Man I need food." he tossed the empty into the sink, slid into his jacket grateful to find the Impala's keys in the pocket and made one more pass through the place just to be sure he didn't leave anything behind.

"Good morning baby..." he smiled sliding his sunglasses on then stroked the dash as he reversed down the driveway. Behind him, shadows swayed on the vinyl siding of the model home.

OOooOO

In his booth in the diner Sam twisted in place hoping to drive out the wrench in the middle of his back. He looked at the innocuous envelope on the table, his eyes fixed on the name;

"To: Mr. Jim 'Sammy' Carson

% Arbor Hills Motel Room 3

Winchester, Il. 60332"

He hadn't opened it yet and wasn't going to until he had a chance to talk this over with Dean. Something was very wrong here. There could be no doubt that someone was watching them, the couple photos, _his _missing _stolen _tie, numerous hang-up phone calls. _It's almost like someone's stalking us... or is it just me?_ He wondered staring down into a plate of eggs and bacon he no longer wanted.

OOooOO

Dean pulled the car into the lot, eased the gearshift into park and leaned back feeling the engine vibrating all around him.

"Shit." He sighed cutting the soothing rumble and sliding from the car shambled shakily into the motel room.

"Sammy?" he called once the door swung closed behind him. The younger Winchester wasn't there but his belongings remained. That they did seemed somehow strange to the older brother, he expected...well honestly he didn't know what he expected exactly, but for all the times Sam had taken off for whatever reason Dean certainly didn't expect him to stick around for whatever repercussions might now come between them. Dean took a dizzy look around, his eyes fell to his bag still on the chair where he'd been rooting through it before everything hit the fan, and he tossed it onto the bed.

_I feel terrible..._he leaned in the bathroom doorway, his head on his forearm trying to still the spinning, uncertain if another wave of acidic spew was in the offing. He breathed deep through his mouth until it passed and wondered if perhaps some of it might stem from the leaden weight of regret rocking in his depths. There were a lot of things Dean Winchester regretted, most of them he could live with and learn from, _I have to tell her, _but this was new. A stable relationship outside of the blood line wasn't something he'd allowed himself to truly, deeply or for any length of time, genuinely contemplate having an opportunity to have, _and I blew it. Please forgive me, not that I deserve it but... you have to... I need to know you're out there for me... I need... God I'm sorry. _

Shakily he closed the bathroom door and started the shower wondering if the damage he'd done could be repaired.

OOooOO

With the unopened envelope in hand and concern growing in his belly Sam stopped short half relieved at the sight of the impala parked contentedly before their motel room door.

He ambled toward the car peering into the front seat first then the back to see if Dean was still inside or if he'd gone into the room.

_Oh man... I'm sorry Dean..._ he thought turning the key in the lock and walking into a humid wall of shower sounds he could mimic perfectly in sequence since he was a kid. _Wow, he hasn't been hung over in a long time... _he frowned recognizing the tell tale groan of a night of liquored up debauchery, not to be confused with the moan of a night of successful seduction. _Don't tell me you went out and did what I think you did... maan Dean... he's gonna need food if we're gonna be able to work this out. _

He set the envelope on top of the pictures, half anchored it with the computer and turned back out the door to get a heart attack in a paper wrapper that would help cure his big brother's hang over.

OOooOO

"Sam?" Dean called stepping out into the main room with a towel swathed around his hips while the shower continued to run behind him, "Huh..." his eyes fell to the table and the manila envelope under the computer, _that wasn't there earlier was it?_ He wondered picking it up and dropping the two photographs beneath it onto the floor.

At the sight of his little brother's missing tie he frowned confused then glanced at the second picture, a lascivious grin growing easily for a moment, "Good boy..." he sighed then seemed to notice something that wiped away that grin and left him with a seedling of unease growing in his belly. _Woulda had to be on a ladder to get that shot... what the hell?_ "Where are you Sammy?" he mumbled reaching for the cell phone the younger man had obviously retrieved and placed on his night table.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

Sifi


	4. Chapter 4

Gimme Shelter – Chpt 4.

By: sifi.

OOooOO

"So are you gonna see _this _one again or was it just another fuck?" Angela cocked her eyebrow from across the cubicle.

Deb shook her head smirking then sighed and smiled languidly, "Mmm he was... something definitely... different." She popped a chunk of tuna into her mouth before resuming her normal plastic every day expression, "If I'd come across him two years ago, I might be wiling..." she shook her head then looked at her best friend hating the shadow of pity that crossed her eyes, "just a fuck."

"Well at least dish a little dirt girl... what's the smile about? Obviously this one had a little something the rest of 'em don't?" Angela asked trying to rearrange the suddenly awkward vibe between them.

Deb grinned leaning across the carpeted square. A flake of fish dropped to the floor and she ground it into the carpeting, "Oh yeah... dude was so shitfaced he couldn't even see straight, not that it mattered... he could've flown me home on autopilot..."

Angela could feel her eyes pop open, "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Uh huh..." Deb wrapped her tongue around the fork.

"No way!"

"Uh huh," she grinned bobbing her head up and down.

"You actually..." she looked around and checked her volume, "Did you finally... really?"

"I did! For the first time since..." she nodded, "well the first time with another person since then."

"So _that's_ why you'd consider..." Angela smiled leaning back in her chair, basking in Deb's triumphant glow almost as much as Deb herself.

The cornsilk blonde tossed the remnants of her lunch into the trash and nearly bounced out of her chair, her smile broad and bright, "Be right back."

Circling the atrium toward the less frequently used bathrooms on the far side Deb wondered if she would one day be able to let a man into her heart again. Last night's adventure with the drunken hustler was the first time she'd been able to let down her guard enough to enjoy male company in years.

She locked the door to the stall and sat down, _when did Ricky turn into a dick? _But she knew the answer. He'd always been one, but he hid it well until after the wedding. That was when the man suit came off and the evil inside stepped out into the light.

While she contemplated how close she'd come to losing such a vital part of herself to someone else, a slender gray shadow snaked along the angle where the wall joined the ceiling. It stopped over Deb's stall riding a strip of darkness where the stall wall was anchored into the room wall, and as she rose and righted her clothes it sprang.

OOooOO

"...now... you wanna tell me what the hell's been going on since yesterday?" Dean mumbled between mouthfuls while he spread the photos and the still unopened envelope on the table between him and Sam.

"I don't know," the younger man shook his head, "first one was this one..." he tapped the picture of him and Kitsune then flipped it face down for at least a modicum of privacy, "it was under my pillow when I went to bed, about 2 a.m. I thought you put it there y'know to lighten the mood..."

Dean nodded back and forth, it was something he _would_ do if he'd ever thought of taking a picture of his baby brother in the act, "Yeah well whoever did take it sure as hell was quiet with the ladder... I mean look at the perspective..." he flipped the shot over again, "Man she's got a beautiful bod... I'd almost forgot..."

"Come ON Dean! I don't need to know you had her first! You think I want your sloppy seconds!?" Sam leaped to his feet and turned away from his brother, combing his hair with his fingers.

"Relax Sam I helped her, I didn't screw her... I may have helped myself to a glance or two while she was getting dressed once or twice but not even you can blame a guy for appreciating a beautiful woman."

Sam's look of haggard disbelief hit Dean square.

"Aww up yours Sam," he grunted shaking his head, still not up to par and not in any way ready for whatever emo bullshit the younger man was about to pull out of his twisted up boxer briefs. He pushed himself off the chair and rolled onto his bed with the remote in hand, turning on the tv and waiting for it to warm up. "Why don't you go out and have a nice night for a change, let's see if your little fangirl or boy follows you out into the big bad world."

"Maybe my idea of a good time isn't necessarily going for a hookup behind my girls back!" Sam snarled between clenched teeth.

Dean pushed himself up, "What goes on between me and her is NONE of your business, so I'm gonna pretend you didn't just say that."

Sam wheeled, his eyes blazing into Dean's but that far too familiar lemon puckered mouth speaking volumes. "You're right." He nodded. "It's not my business," he slung his jacket over his shoulder, "That's one of the reasons I didn't say anything, I figured she'd want to tell you herself... just like when that son of a bitch got his mitts on her in Chicago, it was up to her to tell you..." he watched Dean's expression soften slightly with the reminder of that long ago incident, "So no, it's not my business Dean... I just thought you were better than that."

With his big brother effectively stunned silent he strode to the door burying the shame of the cards he'd just throw on the deck, "By the way," he couldn't seem to stop his mouth no matter how much he wanted to, "did _you_ ever tell _her_ you were about to break up with her before she asked you to kill her?" As much as he hated to admit it, Sam felt a deep sense of satisfaction at the look on Dean's face as he reminded the older man of that particular fact. How just before her car had stalled out at the perimeter of the wards around Bobbys' house he was in the middle of telling Sam he couldn't take it anymore. "Maybe instead of each of you drowning in your own insecurities you two should actually talk for a change." He hissed slamming the door behind himself and heading out to learn whatever he could about his mysterious stalker.

_Son of a bitch is right... man I hate it when he's right..._ he drew a deep breath, _Sam... _and slid off the bed reaching for the door knob.

"And at the top of the hour; a local realtor was found strangled to death in the bathroom at work, area police are now on the scene..." _Realtor? _His head whipped around to look at the set even as he opened the motel room door.

"Sam!" he barked waving the younger man back from across the parking lot, "Get in here..." his eyes returned quickly to the set and the picture of the woman he'd spent the night with.

"Look," Sam sighed returning to the room, "You're right, it really IS none of my business, I'm sorry okay... I'm just..."

"Cranky," Dean nodded grasping him by the jacket and pulling him into the room, "You're always cranky when you don't sleep well, and you never sleep well when you don't know where I am... so... sorry..." he apologized then pointed to the tv, "We got a bigger issue though."

"What?" Sam asked noting the deep frown on his big brother's face. He sat at the foot of the bed and watched as the commercial break ended and the mid day news came back on leading with the story that had drawn the color right back out of Dean's face.

"That's the girl I was with last night." He explained quietly.

OOooOO

Dean leaned back in the chair, his eyes glued to the computer screen, his mouth turned down in a scowl it was possible no one had ever seen, with his cell pressed to his ear, "Thanks Bobby, I appreciate it." He nodded, "Well so far it looks like that's about when it started." He shook his head, "I don't know, my guts are saying human, if it was something supernatural I don't think it would've waited this long to come out of the woodwork y'know?" He nodded again, "Yeah I'm not particularly wild about that fact either, a yard full of hunters, demons and sidhe, and not a single one of us sniffed out anything? Not even Ajax... I mean I know we were preoccupied but that's just... yeah yeah, excuses today or tomorrow doesn't change the facts, and the facts are whoever's been following us around enough to get these pictures," he shook his head, "I don't like it. Yeah. He's out getting some details on a possibly strange death. He's a big boy..." he sighed and rubbed his eyes, "I can't... I can't take that chance. Someone might've seen us together... last night." He muttered and cringed, "I know Bobby I know... can we just get back to the business at hand here? You know the dead body... alright... well yeah, it's not going to do any good getting out of town if whoever's been stalking us has been on our asses since then, they're obviously tracking us..." he glanced toward the door, "... Bobby I'll call you back." Then stuck the phone into his pocket, closed the computer and with the room key in hand headed out into the parking lot.

"Smart man Sammy, insisting on a rental..." he muttered moving around the Impala, feeling under the wheel wells and bumpers before sliding under the car to look for any signs of a tracking device. "C'mon talk t'me baby... who touched you? Someone stick something somewhere they shouldn't have?"

Leaving the room he didn't notice the plain white envelope with a fine coating of dust on it sticking out from under the door mat with his name written in confident block letters.

OOooOO

"I don't understand," Sam shook his head, "and don't tell me she choked on an ice cube and it melted and that's why there's no trace of it."

To his surprise the coroner actually seemed to consider the possibility for almost a full second, "No, if that'd been the case there would've been trauma in the trachea from the corners and probably fluid in the right lung. Other than asphyxia as the c.o.d, I'm sorry detective but until a few more reports come back, histology, tox... I just don't have anything else that's definitive aside from the fact that she was sexually active within twenty four hours of her death, and it appears to have been consensual." He watched the young man nod and frown and seem to steel himself.

Sam patted down his pockets and frowned, "Damnit..." then gestured for the Medical Examiner's pen, "This is my cell, will you call me with whatever you find out?"

The older man nodded, "Detective, is there something in particular I should be looking for?"

Slowly Sam shook his head, "No, not really... I'm already pretty sure there's no link between this case and the other ones," he did his best to sound disheartened, "but the sooner I can confirm that, the sooner I can get back to Bull City."

The M.E. nodded his understanding and watched the young man leave carrying under his arm a copy of whatever information he'd already been able to glean from this particular corpse.

OOooOO

Glancing out the window into the parking lot, watching as the eldest Winchester slid his hands into the car's private places, then lowered himself beneath that black satin beauty breath stuttered sharply into an otherwise dry throat. In response the chest rose and fell quickly and as the shirt slid off the shoulders, the camera came up. The digital screen shone in the mirror ensuring that the focus was where it should be. The bruising was almost completely gone now and the scars were practically invisible, the incisions having been made at the borders of the aureolas. Satisfied with that shot the lens was angled just a bit lower to the abdomen where surprisingly thick lines of dried blood outlined a simple devil's trap, a pentagram within a circle carved into the skin there.

Stripping all the way down light footsteps padded into the bathroom and started running the shower, it was time to wash out the auburn dye.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

Sifi.


	5. Chapter 5

Gimme Shelter – chpt 5

By: sifi.

OOooOO

"Dean..." Sam shook his head, his jaw laying deep against his chest glad the computer's player was on mute, "What the hell is going on here?"

The elder Winchester looked at his little brother and shook his head, his disgust clearly written on his features while the scene played out on the computer screen, "I think we got us a groupie... and not in a good way."

"What the hell kind of hunter VIDEO DOCUMENTS what they do?" Sam asked.

"Even bigger question... HOW does someone video document this kind of thing? I mean half the time our cells go dead until the deed's done and I still think the only thing that made the whole mass exorcism at the jail house work was because the electronics were in a whole other room and we were on generator power... and I STILL think it was just damned dumb luck it DID work y'know?" Dean sat back scrubbing his face as the restrained demon host on the screen screamed, its fully black eyes seething as they followed their tormentor.

"Yeah," Sam nodded, "Did you notice the focus on this? It's up tight enough to get a good hard look at the host from the waist up, but never once do we see any identifying characteristics of the assailant."

"Assailant?"

"Sorry," he grinned, "stuck in cop-speak mode."

"Work it baby," Dean clapped him on the shoulder and nodded, "I did notice that... even the clothes don't tell us anything."

"Stalkers are usually of the opposite gender right?" Sam asked.

"Let's hope so." Dean shuddered finally starting to shake off the haze of his hangover.

"We have to figure this out Dean..." Sam pointed at the computer, "Something like this, this is bragging... and not that we haven't done our fair share of demonic...questioning, we're aware enough to know we may be exchanging the hosts' life for whatever information we can get y'know? Does this person know that?" He scrubbed his face with his hands and shook his head glancing at the photo of him and Kitsune, "They've been following us for almost three months? I mean who _does_ that?"

"And how'd they know what we do in the first place?" Dean asked as Sam nodded, "I called Bobby, he's going over his surveillance records from back then."

"With the wards we had around the place do you think he actually GOT anything?" Sam asked.

On the table Dean's cell began to ring. He reached for it, answering brusquely, "Hello?" to find a disconnected line.

Frowning he looked at the last incoming call and shook his head.

"Unavailable?" Sam asked.

"Yeah."

"Happened to me between the cell and the room phone, about 8 times this morning."

Their eyes flew to the door as a knock sounded followed by, "Housekeeping."

"Not today." Dean shouted.

"Sir there's an envelope out here for someone named Dean."

With a spocked eyebrow he glanced through the peep hole and opened the door sure to stay behind the salt line as the petite blonde high schooler smiled nervously at him, holding out the dirt smudged envelope.

"Where was it?" he asked taking it gingerly at the edges.

"Kinda under the mat sir."

Dean nodded, "You were working the desk the other night weren't you.." he glanced at her name tag, "Lucy?"

"Yes sir."

"Lemme ask you a question, as far as you recall was there anyone that checked in after us that might have asked about either of us?"

After a moment's thought she shook her head, "Not that I recall."

"How many people checked in after us but before sun rise?" Sam asked stepping to his brother's side and gingerly taking the envelope from him.

"Just one that I recall, a tall gentleman, very wiry looking... he looked like one of the Blues Brothers." She smiled.

"About how long after we got here did he show up?" Sam asked.

"Oh a few hours later, I remember cause my eyes were starting to close... they always do between 3:30 and 4:30 when I work nights at the desk, I was grateful for something to do to keep me awake."

"Is he still here?"

"No sir, he checked out this morning."

The brothers shared a look then nodded, "Thanks Lucy... can you do us a favor? If anyone comes around asking about us or sniffing around our door can you let us know?" Dean asked.

"Sure." She shrugged, "Sorry I couldn't be more helpful." And trundled her cart down the row to the next door where she knocked, "Housekeeping." Before Dean closed the motel room door.

"Doesn't prove anything." Dean sighed.

"Except that whoever's on our asses isn't necessarily staying here."

A moment later a startled yip and a wall jarring thud had the boys checking weapons and dashing over the sidewalk, down three rooms where they found Lucy sprawled against the door jamb a smear of blood on the wall from her head.

"Lucy?" Sam roused her, "Lucy what happened?"

Dean moved through the room, his gun drawn as he noted the bathroom curtains waving in the breeze. Turning quickly he raced outside and around the building toward the back trying to find hide or hair of anyone or anything.

A moment later he jogged back to the room where Sam was urging the teen to keep a cloth pressed to her scalp.

"What happened?" Dean asked.

"It was probably just a squatter... we get 'em sometimes. Folks jimmy the windows open and slide on inside for the night," she shook her head.

"Did you see if it was a man or a woman?" Sam asked.

"I'm not sure, whoever it was they were fast, I mean really fast."

"So what they knocked you down and headed out the window?" Dean asked setting a cup of water in front of her while from outside the kindness was caught on film.

Lucy shook her head and chuckled embarrassed, "No... the room was supposed to be empty, I opened the door, pushed the cart in and saw someone dash into the bathroom... when I turned to run out..." she swallowed and blushed deeply, "I tripped and hit my head."

Dean sat back, "You didn't happen to just loose a cursed rabbits' foot or something did you?"

"Dude!"

"What? I'm just askin! There could be more than one!"

She looked between the two men unsure what to make of the question, "Uhm not that I know of."

Dean shook his head and smiled gently while Sam explained, "It's an inside story. Did you see anything that could tell us anything about the man or woman?" he asked.

His eyes popped wide just then as the elder brother dashed quickly to the bathroom and reached into the garbage can sandwiched between the sink and the toilet. "Lucy when was the last time the trash was taken out in here?"

"Yesterday," she peeped from the main room.

Dean returned to the living area with a smirk on his face and an empty box in his hand, "We're looking for a red head."

"Are you guys cops?" the young girl asked.

"More like private investigators," Sam smiled gently then checked the bleeding under the facecloth, "Are you sure you don't want to go to a doctor? Get that checked out?"

She shook her head smiling sheepishly as she wrung the cloth between her hands, "No... it's embarrassing enough I got spooked and tripped over my own two feet..."

"Head wounds bleed like crazy... you should take it easy today anyway okay?" Sam urged as she nodded and rose to her feet.

"And if you remember anything... y'know... sometimes it comes back to you in a flash, please let us know okay?"

"I will." She nodded, watching them return to their room.

OOooOO

Back in their room Sam stood before the computer and huffed, "Dean."

"Poor kid," Dean returned from a quick check of the bathroom, "What?"

Sam held up a piece of notepaper from the room pad, "How do you like my handiwork?" he read.

"Are you shittin' me?" the elder hunter dashed forward snatching the piece of paper from Sam's grip, again it was written in strong block letters, nothing to indicate gender. "Sam we gotta get the hell out of here."

"And go WHERE Dean?" Sam snapped.

"I don't know! Find a vacant house to squat in... somewhere no one else can be drawn into this freak's game!"

Sam nodded relieved. He couldn't say why but the thought of Dean getting spooked enough to want to 'run away' from whatever was going on rattled him deep inside.

"Yeah... that's a good idea, I mean if we can't shake this... person the least we can do is make sure no one else gets hurt."

The blaring strains of AC/DC rocked out of Dean's jacket pocket, startling both men and leaving them staring at the phone for several tense seconds until the incoming call registered.

"Laura, hey." Dean greeted stiffly and headed toward the bathroom while Sam sat down at the computer and used his pocket knife to slice open the dirt smudged envelope Lucy had given them earlier.

OOooOO

"Lucy! C'mon klutzo the movie's starting! Or did you fall and hit your head again?" her little brother's voice carried through the bedroom door.

"Good one dork!" she called with a sheepish smile, "Go ahead and start the popcorn I'll be right down... I've got like two more problems to finish." Then rubbed the band aid over the knot in her forehead.

Behind her, where the wall met the ceiling a band of smoky gray seemed to hang in the corner, and when she finished her last two problems, closed her books and left the bedroom to meet her little brother downstairs, it followed.

OOooOO

"What'd she say?" Sam asked after Dean was through with his call.

The older man shook his head, "We have to talk."

"Is she comin'?" Sam asked, "She could be helpful here, I mean as a nurse she would have a background in psych y'know?"

Dean shook his head, "I don't want her anywhere near this, I mean I do watch Unsolved Mysteries y'know... shit with stalkers doesn't usually go well you know what I mean?"

Sam nodded, visibly weighing whether or not to speak what wanted to come out.

"She'll be here before midnight," Dean sighed watching his little brother's conflict, "Just spit it out Sam." He urged expectantly but the younger man shook his head. His gaze fell on the paused image of the demon host in the chair, tributaries of blood frozen in a race toward his lap. His mind went back almost a full year now, to the night they found the crossroad host in that abandoned tool and die shop, the skin flayed from the body in way too many places, her bones ground to gravelly fragments within the muscle, a binding link torn into the skin of her chest, an eye missing and an instinctive knowledge that the demon who'd been trapped in the flesh had been served up to a passel of starving igigi courtesy of one very pissed off emissary of Cernunnos. None of them ever talked about it, Sam had never confirmed or confronted Laura about it. But he knew. Only someone who was on the verge of losing everything could muster that level of pure rage. He also knew that only someone who was that deeply in love would do, face and survive everything she had so far... for them, and he wondered what would happen if it turned out that it had all been in vain.

"What Sam?" Dean asked sitting across from the younger man, genuinely curious about what had put that precise look on his face, it lingered between distaste and admiration, an odd combination to say the least.

Slowly the young hunter drew a breath and looked his brother in the eyes, "Do you really love her?"

OOooOO

A/N - uh... just out of curiosity... if you're still following this please let me know cause this one is gonna segue into a Criminal Minds crossover... if it's a matter that I'm not hitting the right notes here... let me know please.

Till then... thank you for reading and I do sincerely hope you are enjoying. (cause there IS an endgame coming... I mean Sammy does have to face off with Lilith right?)

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks

Sifi.


	6. Chapter 6

Gimme Shelter – chpt 6.

By: sifi.

A/N – Thank you to all who've encouraged me to keep going with this story, I deeply appreciate it and am grateful to each and every one of you, for your time, your encouragement and your generous reviews. Thank You.

OOooOO

Dean couldn't believe what Sam had just asked, "Of course I do, you _know_ I do. Why would you ask me that?"

Sam leaned back trying not to sigh his relief audibly, _because hell hath no fury like a woman scorned man... come on how frikkin' blind ARE you?! _"Then you guys'll be fine."

"Oh," Dean nodded leaning back in his chair obviously confused. "Of course we'll be fine," he flipped through the growing stack of pictures, the ones in the envelope had been of Dean moving through various moments of an investigation from just before all that madness in Pennsylvania. The photos themselves were innocuous, just Dean at various locations either in a suit or in his jeans, none of the images were meant to be revealing, but they were meant to let the boys know they were being very closely watched, and had been for quite some time.

"Y'know what I don't get... if this son of a bitch was around when you were taken in Pennsylvania... and if they're so obsessed with us... why didn't they lend a hand?" Dean shook his head and tossed the photos on the table.

"We haven't seen any pictures yet from then... maybe with Bobby there whoever it was hung back?" Sam shrugged and tapped the back of the picture of him and Kitsune, "I mean so far we haven't seen anything from the week of our little 'demon and hunter meet 'n greet' at Bobbys... this one was taken after that."

"Alright geek boy, let's draw us up a little timeline..." Dean motioned to the computer, the two of them putting their heads together to try and remember everywhere they'd been over the last three months and as many people as they could recall interacting with. Including the other hunters and the demons they'd worked with.

OOooOo

She moved stealthily through the shadows ringing the outside of the young girl's house keeping close, watching through the windows and taking the occasional snapshot. At odd moments when the girl and her little brother sat enthralled by the latest Hollywood adventure on the screen in the basement family room, she sat still and scrolled backwards through the photos she hadn't yet uploaded or printed. She had shots of Dean shooting pool the night before, shots of that silk skirted slut overwhelming him and touching him, _groping_ him before they left the bar. She scrolled forward to her angelic Sam who having spent the day diligently looking into their case and worrying over his selfish and narcissistic brother finally fell into an exhausted sleep at his computer.

She leaned back, a warm smile pulling at the corners of her mouth as she remembered sliding the photo under his pillow, knowing that he was going to be laying there and wondering what it would feel like to lay beside him, to feel him curl around her. Yes he was the one who warmed her heart but Dean... Dean fired her loins as much as she hated to admit it, that bad boy who couldn't even keep it in his pants for the woman he'd made his in Bobby's own yard pushed her buttons too. After all, it was for _his_ pleasure that she spent the last few weeks recuperating from the augmentation surgery, Sam certainly wouldn't care about such a superficial feature. It was for Dean she'd matched the auburn color of his chosen woman's hair, again, Sam wouldn't care about such a trivial thing. But it was for them both she'd learned to hunt. And it was for them both she'd carved her own brand of safety into her own skin. Once they saw what good she was doing, and how capable she was, surely they'd be able to look beyond her less than orthodox methods. And once that time came she would take her rightful place between them. She'd never leave them alone, she'd never abandon them. She would be wife to them both and mother to both of their children. _So... Lilith first? Or the emissary? Definitely the emissary, if I can kill Laura it'll be proof that I'm ready to take on Lilith. Then when they've finished their grieving I'll be there, at their sides giving them everything they need. _

She sat back waiting for the movie to be over, watching as the blonde haired girl tucked her little brother in for the night. She watched that snake of dark gray start to follow, then turn back and move to the window as if to confirm its task. She nodded and smiled as it took off down the hallway back to the girls' room.

OOooOO

"You gonna be alright?" Dean asked from the doorway.

"Dude, you're gonna be right outside...in the parking lot..." Sam nodded, "We're salted to the teeth, we've set the palo santo ward..."

"We're dealing with a possibly psychotic human..." Dean reminded him.

"Mmm good point." Sam nodded then seemed to think for a moment, "Windows are locked, door's gonna stay locked and I've got my cell in hand... go talk. If I need you I'm pretty sure you'll know."

"You sure?"

Sam nodded and grinned, "Like... ninety percent sure," he tossed Dean's usual quip back at him.

The elder man nodded, "'Kay... be back soon... hopefully in one piece."

Warmth and shame flooded him as his eyes fell onto Laura leaning against the trunk of her car, a soft smile on her lips as she awaited his arrival.

His breath hitched in his throat when she stepped forward into his arms, leaning easily into the comfort he represented, her arms steady and sure around him, just as they'd been since he first came to know her.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered shaking his head, brushing her hair with his lips, "I'm so sorry."

"Me too," she sighed cupping his cheek and drawing him in for a soft lingering kiss, "Bobby told me he told you... I'm sorry Dean... I never anticipated she'd be able to cause any harm."

"Guh...od...no, no, no, no it's not your fault..." he shook his head fiercely, "and that's not what I'm sorry about... I mean I AM... but...it's not all..." he paused and pulled gently out of her arms placing his hand over her womb.

Laura felt her brows furrow as she read the look on her mans' face, "What did you do?" She asked.

Running his hand through his hair Dean looked down, "I went a little nuts..."

"Dean?" She asked.

"I got... and I was soo damned mad... and so hurt..." he shook his head.

"Dean."

"I did what any Winchester worth his salt would do..." he raised his eyes, something in them pleading with her already.

"What did you do?"

"I went out and got drunk."

"Okaaaaay, and?" She asked knowing full well there was something else coming.

He shook his head, "I went out and got drunk... and I slept with someone else."

The confession splattered to the ground between them and for a long moment Dean could only look at her through the corner of his eye.

After several long beats she cocked her head to the side, her face crinkled in confusion he didn't understand, "Was it a guy or a girl?"

"What?!" He barked completely stunned by the question, "A girl... I slept with another girl..." he stammered.

"Oh... thank god for that..." she sighed.

"Did you hear me?"

"Of course I heard you." She stepped forward and cupped his face between her hands, "Do you love her?"

This time it was Dean's turn to be confused, "What?! No! It was just... weakness, just pure stupid weakness."

Laura took a breath and scrubbed her face then stiffly pushed herself up to sit on the trunk, motioning him to her.

He came forward and let her position him between her legs, her hands fell lightly to his hips while she looked up into his face, "I've never asked you if you've been with anyone else since we've been together."

He shook his head, "I never have been... I promise... but I did and you deserve the truth."

She nodded and stroked his stubbly cheek, "I love you, you do know that don't you?"

He nodded.

"And you've told me you love me."

"I do, you know I do..." he breathed stroking her face, his lips pressed tight as he leaned his forehead against hers.

Again she nodded and seemed to think for a moment, "This is what's going to happen," she eyed him pointedly, "are you ready?"

He nodded.

Laura nodded and took a steadying breath, "I'm going to go get a room, then I'll meet you at YOUR room so I can say hello to Sam and see how he's doing, then you two can fill me in on what the hell's going on here. Together the three of us will try to come up with something that will solve whatever the problem is, and when we can't think straight anymore..." she waited watching to make sure he was paying attention.

"Yeah?"

"We're going back to my room and I will mark you as MY territory, and you will give me your word that you will never, ever voluntarily fuck, screw, bang or make love with any other woman than me, unless I am dead is that clear?"

He swallowed hard, barely able to believe what she was saying as he nodded, "You still want me?"

Clasping his face gently she pressed her lips to his, "I will want you for all eternity, that doesn't mean that I'll let you hurt me though."

"No..." he shook his head and pressed their mouths together again, slim tears beading between his eyelids, "You really forgive me?"

"We've never talked about sex with other people, but now that we are... consider yourself officially claimed," she slid her hand down his front and cupped him gently, "from here," she gave a gentle stroke, "to here," she kissed his forehead, "everything you are belongs with me... or Sam... but not in the same way of course." She smiled wryly.

Dean shuddered, "Eeehh had t'go there didn't cha?"

He drew her tightly to him, "Just out of curiosity... how long was it since... you know... until we did...?"

"Sweetie until you came along I hadn't had a date since 1908... or is it 1918? I never can keep that straight... let alone slept with anyone." She smiled pressing her ear to his heartbeat.

"Well you do have some very talented hands," he sighed stroking her hair, "how did I get so lucky?"

"You must've asked for a girl who loves you just as you are somewhere along the way," she smiled, "Now...go get your information together while I get situated in a room, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"As you wish my queen," he bowed deeply then reached forward grabbing her behind the head and drawing her in for yet another kiss, "Thank you." A second later he turned, "Hey!"

"Yeah?"

"When you asked... you know... if it was... you didn't _really_ think it was a guy...right?" he whisper-shouted across the lot glancing around to make sure there was no one to hear him ask.

From across the lot her eyes bulged and she shook her head trying not to smirk too brightly.

"Course not... right...good," he nodded, "That's good."

"Go." She headed for the office while he seemed to glide back to room number 3.

OOooOO

"Dare I ask?" Sam asked after thoroughly checking his brother's face for signs of devastation.

Dean turned and sighed, his brows mildly furrowed but his mouth hinting at gladness, "I uh... I've officially been claimed as territory."

"Excuse me?" Sam leaned forward, his expression curious.

"Yeah, she still wants me." He nodded just as amazed as Sam apparently was.

Mystified the younger man sat back hard in the chair shaking his head.

"Well don't be happy for me or anything... you might strain yourself." Dean grumped.

"I don't get it man," Sam looked up into his big brother's eyes, "How the HELL do you rate?" He shrugged and tossed a beer into Dean's hand, "I mean I AM happy for you... but..."

"But what? She's giving me another chance Sam..." he shook his head, "I'm grateful for it."

Sam straightened up, meeting Dean's gaze directly, "I'm relieved, and I'm glad for you, I just hope you have a clue how freakin' lucky you are."

Dean paced back and forth and raised his bottle in a toast, "Oh I do Samwise believe me I do..."

"Mmm y'know you're scary when you're channeling literati Mr. Frodo." He snickered, _hobbit...prffft!_

"Watch it Sasquatch... and literati my ass... I couldn't get through those books."

"Not unless they made 'em into comics."

"Not unless they were comics." They chimed in unison and chuckling clinked their bottles together while Sam brought his big brother up to speed on what he'd managed to put together of the timeline so far.

OOooOO

In her own room, two doors down from the men she loved Laura lifted her suitcase onto the dresser trying hard not to let her face crinkle with the burning pulling sensation in her low belly. Digging into the corner for a second she then moved into the bathroom and counted how many pills were left of the prescription. If she didn't heal all the way soon she'd have to get another refill. She threw two into her mouth and swallowed them with a handful of water just as another cascade of tearing cramps brought her to her knees leaving her panting and biting her lips to keep from crying out. Tears squeezed out between her tightly clenched lids as she tried to settle her breathing and calm the whimpers.

Air shimmered at the periphery of her vision and an eighteen inch tall woman dressed in an artful combination of skins and cloth, but with very dirty feet moved quickly to her with a small stone cup in hand. The faerie or sidhe female was the mate of her dearest sidhe friend, the warrior Mustardseed. The pair met and mated when he was wounded in the war against Nergal and his feral minions almost three months ago now. She'd nursed him quickly back to health and doted on him ever since. One of the things the diminutive warrior appreciated about his mate was her understanding of his attachment to the human woman who'd helped save the majority of their race, and with that understanding MilkThistle and Mustardseed had practically adopted Laura into the family.

She stood on Laura's folded thighs and held her head steady while she poured the elixir down her throat then stroked the human woman's sweat soaked hair. They both knew that whatever Lilith had done to her while destroying the child she'd carried was not healing. It didn't help that the woman did not allow herself the rest needed to do so either. MilkThistle wondered if Laura's mate could talk some sense into her and vowed to visit him when there was a moment alone.

Slowly the rending pain subsided and Laura nodded as the sweat dried and her breathing returned to normal. When she described the pain to the doctor the morning she woke up in the hospital in India, with Imdugud at her side all she could envision was a baseball bat with a dozen spikes through it and the feeling that it was up inside her womb and every once in a while someone turned it with a jerk..

Imdugud, the Assyrian demi-god with a vendetta against Lilith had arrived just moments too late to protect Laura or the child she carried. He'd been in the middle of a great run of self-castigation when Dean called him, asking for his help to find Sam who was at that very moment Liliths' prisoner and victim.

The sound of running water brought her attention back to the moment, it was the language of the sidhe and over time Laura discovered she could understand it, though she certainly could not speak it. She nodded and touched her forehead to the smaller woman's, "Better, thank you."

MilkThistle spoke again but Laura shook her head, "It's okay... it'll be fine in no time... there's already enough to worry about... neither of them needs something new." The warrior female scowled deeply at her and started yelling, such as it was. Laura shook her head, "I won't, I promise I'll let them do everything... I won't swat a fly..." but MilkThistle would have none of it, she jumped off her thighs and pointed to the growing glossy red stain spreading through the denim of her jeans.

"Awww shit..." she felt the blood drain out of her head leaving her dizzy and a little nauseous as she bit back a sob, it'd been a couple days since she'd last hemorrhaged and she'd hoped she'd healed that far. "Give it another couple days... it's probably just cause I lifted the suitcase..."

Wagging her finger sternly at the emissary, MilkThistle returned to the other side of the veil for something else she hoped would help the stubborn human.

OOooOO

Relieved that her men were still at the motel and satisfied that her thoughtform would watch the teenager to ensure she didn't try to seduce either of the Winchester brothers, the self made huntress sat in the last empty room of the motel poring once more over her newly minted birth certificate, social security card, and drivers' license. Her new name drew her eyes with nearly magnetic pull as she glanced into the mirror, then dipped her fingers into a small saucer full of holy water, "I Christen thee Mary Winchester." She sighed drawing a cross on her forehead, "So named for the holy mother, the wife of the first king and the Kings themselves."

She tipped several drops of the sacred water over her head then got down to the business of setting up her altar and checking on the girl through the thoughtform she'd summoned last week.

_I should destroy it and summon another one. The book said that if they're kept alive for more than a couple days they get used to living and can turn into wraiths._ She reminded herself as she pierced the pad of her finger and drew the entity's shape on a piece of paper in blood, _tomorrow, I'll destroy it and call up a new one tomorrow. Besides, what harm do wraiths do? They just hang around in the shadows and freak people out._

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

Sifi.


	7. Chapter 7

Gimme Shelter – chpt 7.

By: sifi

OOooOO

"Wow... you look terrible," Sam leaned forward once Laura returned from the bathroom and gingerly lowered herself onto the couch beside Dean who shot him a scowl but concurred. "We can finish this up in the morning y'know."

She smiled loosely as the elder Winchester's lips pressed to her temple and his fingers combed through her hair, "I'm not quite back up to par yet... doc said it could take a while."

Dean frowned turning her to face him, concern flashed through his eyes, "Why don't you stretch out?" he suggested glancing at Sam who seemed to be on the same wavelength. He gave her his most charming smile and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, "You can territorialize me tomorrow." When her hand rose to his cheek he turned wondering how he'd ever jeopardized this.

Slowly she nodded, "I'm gonna go call it a night then."

"Go?" Dean questioned, "No," he shook his head, "stay... here... with me. Just sleep." He asked. It wasn't anything unusual for them anyway. If the three of them were together it wasn't uncommon for the two of them to share a bed. From the beginning they'd made it a practice that if they wanted to be alone they would either get a different room or ask Sam to go shopping or something knowing the young man would eagerly leave them be.

Her eyes flicked to her purse, there were still a couple pills in there if she needed them, and so she nodded.

OOooOO

In the teenage girl's bedroom, just a few miles down the road a tendril of smoky shadow that began as a manifestation of someone else's will slowly smiled. The body of gray moved, separating until it was bent around a crescent of almost white. It could feel the pull and call of its mother, but in this first instant of self-awareness it chose not to heed it. Instead it slithered down the wall until it reached the child it had been watching.

It sensed life and strength and power and it desired them. As it slid into the child seeking the source of its energy, it could still feel the call of mother. It felt heat, crumbling charred paper kind of heat then it was free and mother's call was gone. Somewhere deep inside there was the memory of red rock, warmth and swirling currents of energy it had been called from when it was only a thoughtform.

As it fed on the child it came to know the place of its origin, the same place where other entities waited to emerge from the darkness and into the light, and it knew it would set them free, it only had to grow strong enough to get there to the vortex it once called home and the energies it called kin.

When the child had no more it took to the shadows slithering out into the night to begin its journey.

OOooOO

"She should be resting... recuperating somewhere safe." Sam whispered motioning to the bed where Laura had pretty much crashed the instant she lay down.

Dean nodded and looked from the woman to his little brother, "Lilith was using your powers bypass the seal." _Seal?... Seals... what about seals?_

Sam's gaze snapped to him, he hadn't realized Dean knew that much, "Yeah," he croaked.

"Did you have any awareness at all? Anything? Did you have any idea what was happening? Or what she was doing?" he asked but didn't look at the younger man, he was afraid of the answer he might get.

"No," Sam's hand fell to his shoulder, "the Asag had me locked in this... alternate reality, this head trip... kinda like your djinn trip but... this was worse, the hounds tore you apart right in front of me, Lilith had taken over Ruby's host... the bill came due and I couldn't stop it... she had me convinced I buried you out in some... salt plain... and I didn't believe her. But when I went to dig you up your body wasn't there anymore." He shuddered while trying not to remember the sound of the hounds tearing Dean to pieces in that long ago living room, "At some point," he swallowed hard, "the Asag ran out of poison so that last time that Lilith was... the last time she was..." he shook his head.

"You don't have to say it," Dean assured him but this time didn't look at his little brother because he knew Sam wouldn't want him to see him struggling like this.

"Yeah... she uh leaned in... and told me what she'd done." He drew long and hard on the last half of the beer, "She told me..." he stopped, unable to go on and still somehow surprised by the depth of the pain thinking about it all brought back up. "We have to find her and kill her Dean. We can't let that child be born."

"_She cannot be allowed to succeed." _He heard a soft masculine voice he somehow knew even though it didn't belong to anyone he could name. "Did you hear that?" he asked Sam.

"Hear what?"

"That voice... a guys' voice."

Sam shook his head, "Maybe someone from the other room?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded then picked up the thread of conversation, "Anyway, you don't know it's gonna be evil Sam... it is yours too y'know." He glanced up, "could turn out emo instead."

Sam snorted wetly and got himself under control, "Jerk."

"Bitch." Dean retorted comfortably and shouldered him.

"So, why'd you ask now when you haven't before?"

"I want to know exactly what that bitch did to her. I want to know HOW she killed my child. I want to know if we'll ever be able to have one. I want to know why almost two weeks after the attack she looks like I think she might have the same night it happened."

"Imdugud was there just seconds too late, he's the one who found her and got her to a hospital," Sam frowned and startled, "I don't know how I knew that..."

"Perfect, no one better to look after her while we finish with this stalker crap once and for all." Dean nodded.

"You really think getting this person riled up enough to show themselves is a good idea?"

"I think getting our asses to a location that's gonna keep collateral read _human _damage as low as possible is a damned good plan to start with." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a demi-god.

OOooOO

Just a few miles down the road from the motel where all the occupants were finally sleeping, in a three bedroom ranch house a mother entered her daughter's room to kiss her goodnight and screamed.

OOooOO

_Dean rolled onto his side, the ground hard and biting into his left shoulder. It hurt more and more the older he got and with the number of times he'd been shot, nailed, hammered, stuck with hot pokers, had it shattered and the bone reconstructed and replaced, it was no wonder. He also knew he was dreaming. 'This is going to be important...' he told himself. _

"_Mmmshit..." he grumbled breathing in the familiar scent of old dirty motor oil and decaying metal. _

"_Dean." _

_There was that voice again, the one he recognized but didn't. _

"_Mm?" he sat up quickly, wincing and scratched his bed head. _

"_You have to tell Sam. You can't keep shielding him from this." _

_Now on his feet his belly filled quickly with dread as layer after layer of memories stole his breath and forced him to double over. 'This isn't the same dream...' he didn't even know why he bothered thinking that. He suddenly knew exactly what was going on, and he suddenly knew everything all over again. It was the same everything that had tried to crush him while he was in the hospital room watching Sam for signs of consciousness. With the weight of it all returned to him, he could feel it pressing in on him, but the voice continued. _

"_It's not really a dream, we've been over this before. It's the only way we can talk while your wards are up." _

_He looked at the owner of the voice, 'The rumpled trench coat, the bad haircut...' "I know you." He muttered scratching his head again. _

"_Yes you do. I'm Castiel."_

"_You're... Castiel." They said together, "You came to me in the hospital in New Castle a couple weeks ago... that night I almost died... again." _

_The rumpled man seemed to want to smile, "The night you DID die."He corrected. _

_Time seemed to race backwards, it was as if the ground moved around him, but for a moment, before he returned to the memory of their initial meeting, something happened. Dean looked down and saw blackness beneath his feet, but before he could breathe to ask a question..._

_... he was once again looking up through a hazy film as red splattered off to the right of his vision and somewhere off to the left a single long note sounded and someone yelled, "He's crashing!" _

_Breath leaked out of him and he felt the burning of his chest and belly torn to ribbons and his senses exploded with memories. _

_It took a moment before he could breathe again and when he did, 'Wow... man I looooove morphine!' he thought while smiling goofily into some seriously bright blue eyes looking down into his. _

"_Dude... you're a wreck, they should let you guys get some sleep." He muttered. _

"_C'mon Dean. Let's go for a walk." The warm voice suggested and he really wanted to. _

"_Mmkay... think I should though? I mean I'm not gonna rip up your handiwork right?" _

_But before he knew it he was standing beside the man who he noticed was looking very rumpled in a trench coat that really needed to be pressed, 'that's why I like leather,' he thought turning back as someone in a yellow Universal Precautions gown ran past them. _

"_What's going on?" he asked and tried to follow but the man in the trench coat turned him back. _

"_Nothing for you to worry about," he assured Dean as they left the hospital and meandered through a nearby park, "My name is Castiel." _

"_Dean Winchester," he offered his hand and felt lingering warmth suffuse him as the man gripped it. _

"_We have a job for you Dean. You and your brother." _

"_Sam! Oh God! Sammy! He's in trouble... I gotta find him!" he nearly panicked but that warm hand dropped onto his shoulder, and that strange soft but somehow powerful voice assured him. _

"_You will. Believe me when I tell you this IS more important." _

_At this Dean turned to face the haggard looking man, "Buddy I don't know who you are but nothing, do you understand me NOTHING is more important than saving my brother." _

"_How about saving the world?" _

"_HAH! Nice try, but we just saved the entire freakin' UNIVERSE... the world should be a piece of cake after that!" Dean scoffed. _

_Castiel nodded and seemed to want to smile again, "We know you did, and that's one of the reasons you and Sam have been chosen." _

"_Chosen for what?" _

"_You know the demon Lilith?" _

"_Not in a biblical sense but yeah." Dean nodded. _

_This time Castiel DID smile. _

"_She held the contract on your soul when you made the deal for Sam." _

"_What!?" Dean asked, he remembered that bitch of a thief Bella saying something to that effect just before her own contract came due, but he didn't believe her, especially when they realized the crossroad demon and apparently her hounds as well, had been killed. _

"_The ally of yours who killed the crossroad demon only postponed the inevitable," Castiel continued and though Dean didn't want to hear it all, he knew he had to. Somehow he knew his very soul depended on it. "The lord has certain rules, and by making the deal you broke two of them. First and foremost you offered your own soul, you de-valued something so precious that angels and demons have been fighting over them for millennia. For that alone you _**will**_ go to hell." _

_He looked at the young man and shook his head, reading the protest right out of his mind, "IT doesn't matter that it was for Sam, it wouldn't have mattered if it was for your father, or your mother. In the eyes of the lord every soul is equally valuable and you devalued yours. It's a hell-worthy offense." _

"_And second?" Dean barely whispered and felt himself swallow hard, behind them, attached to this Castiel's shadow was something that looked like folded wings, 'demons can have wings too... who's team are you really playing on?' he wondered._

"_You've openly worked with demons," he once more halted Deans protest before it could hit the air, he held up his hand, "that's actually more of a... I think the word is, "tisk tisk?" offense but there are some of us that are a little unnerved by that willingness to work with 'the enemy', so when the time comes, you'll need to beware." _

"_So when I die I'm going to go to hell because I willingly sacrificed my own SOUL to save my brother!?" He ground between clenched teeth, "I guess no good deed really DOES go unpunished... I mean what the Fff...HELL man?" _

_Beside him Castiel shrugged, "You see Sam in many ways as your own son right?" _

"_Yeah... sometimes." _

"_How would you feel if he traded possession of his soul for another?"_

"_No way I'd let it happen!" _

"_Why?"_

_Slowly Dean nodded, "Alright I get it... but can't we... you know... a slap on the wrist some time in purgatory? Or Tartarus? I'll take the rock from that guy who's gotta push it uphill for eternity..." _

"_It doesn't work like that." Castiel smiled tightly but shook his head. _

_Crestfallen Dean turned the conversation back to something familiar, "So since I only have until I die to do anything worthwhile... let's go back to Lilith, how's she fit into all this or was that just about the contract?" he asked. _

_Castiel turned to face him, "No, there's more... you may not remember it right away though."_

"_Do you remember what your friend Jim taught you and Sam about the number of the beast?" _

"_What? Six Six Six?" Dean asked._

_Castiel nodded._

"_Yeah some of it... like... it's the number of locks on his cell in hell or something like that but it only takes like ten of 'em to be opened before he gets free or something like that." Dean shook his head feeling more than a little woozy. _

"_It's closer to one tenth of them... sixty six seals break and Lucifer walks free." Castiel explained. _

"_So what's Lilith got to do with it? She got the hots for the king of the unholies or what?" _

_Castiel looked at him, "She is breaking the seals." _

"_Well that ain't good...so what you want me and Sammy to help stop her? No problem I got issues with the bitch anyway... she nearly drove us nuts last year... course then there was Nergal and his little uprising... had to take care of that y'know?" _

"_We know." Castiel nodded, "But there's a problem Dean." _

"_What problem?" _

"_Your soul is held in contract BY Lilith. You literally can NOT act against her so long as that is the case." _

"_Who the hell are you dude? Are you some kind of DaVinci Code half priest half scholar or something?" Dean asked. _

"_My name is Castiel and I am an angel of the Lord." _

_Dean swallowed hard as the shadow of the angel's wings became visible. There was nothing he could say, as much as he didn't want to believe it he did. "So... if the very demon we're supposed to go up against holds the contract on my soul... what can I do?" _

_The angel reached toward him and he felt himself begin to fall, "You can go to hell." _

OOooOO

"_Guh!" Dean breathed with the memories returning completely to him, everything from his first encounter with this angel Castiel, to the decades he spent in hell and everything he endured, as well as every travesty he perpetrated with his own hands. 'I enjoyed it!... Eventually.' Disgusted with the memory, his gaze drove deep into Castiel's while the angel stood rooted to the spot and waited. _

_He remembered sitting in Sam's room after getting the boy back, feeling as if his entire world had shattered because in a fleeting moment between sleep and wakefulness, when Sam had touched his arm, he remembered it all. 'Thank God Sam needed me... I don't know if I could have lived with it for this long...' he thought. _

"_You sent me to HELL!" he stormed at the angel. _

_Castiel shook his head, "The deal you cut sent you down, I'm the one who gripped you tight and pulled you out of perdition."_

_He stepped forward as Dean acclimated to the memory of the pain of forty years spent in hell brought on in four minutes of physical Earthly death, "and I CAN send you back." _

"_Oh yeah? What about the job you wanted me and Sam to do..." 'there's something about the number forty... what is it about forty? Is it holy?... Am I done? When I die again will I have to go back? Do I get another chance?' he wondered. _

"_That contract has been satisfied, if it wasn't you wouldn't be here you know this. Thirty three seals have been broken Dean, you have to tell Sam everything, time is running out and our side is losing warriors every day. You must tell him, or I will." Castiel said firmly. _

_Slowly Dean nodded, once again shoving aside the anguish of what he'd done, "I didn't know..." his voice shook as he faced the angel with tears in his eyes, "I thought... I couldn't have known... no one escapes..." _

"_You were never supposed to know that you _might_ be brought back out. To give you knowledge of the possibility would have been the real torture." Castiel explained, then motioned to the suddenly open barn doors, "Go. Tell Sam. It's time." _

Dean felt his eyes snap open while his breath shuddered in his chest. His arms wrapped tight around the woman with him and as the night wore on he rocked her gently and in between the occasional sob, simply tried to remember to breathe.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

Sifi.


	8. Chapter 8

Gimme Shelter – chpt 8.

By: sifi.

OOooOO

"Mmm where're you goin'?" Dean asked quietly as Laura tried to roll from his embrace.

Wincing as she turned toward him she leaned forward with a curious smile trying to ignore the daggers that tore through her belly, "Bathroom, my room, shower, dress, meet back here for breakfast." She punctuated each part of the plan with a soft warm kiss that made him smile just a little more. It didn't matter though she could still see pain in his eyes, "What's wrong?"

Silent he shook his head then drew hers back down, "Just tell me you love me." He asked with his lips at her ear.

"Forever," she promised and groaned as the sensation of something tearing loose inside stopped her breath in her throat.

Dean frowned, getting up quickly and righting himself so he sat beside her and she could straighten up, "What's the matter?"

She shook her head, "Just hurts," she leaned sideways against him, "It'll pass."

"What exactly did she do to you?" he asked.

She chuckled a bit and touched his cheek, "Think, 'demonic equivalent to a coat-hangar abortion.'"

Air hissed through his teeth as his arm reflexively tightened and his lips came to her cheek, "I'm sorry."

She nodded, "Me too," caressing his cheek with her own before forcing herself to her feet, "I'll be back in about an hour or so."

Trying to imagine the kind of pain she must be feeling Dean let her go, and as soon as he had the coffee brewed sat on the edge of Sam's bed waking the young man who looked at him as if he'd sprouted wings.

"What're you doing?" he groaned sitting up on his elbows and looking around, "Where's Laura?"

"We need to talk," Dean handed the cup to the younger man then nodded at the door, "she went to her room to shower up."

"Talk about what?"

Dean huffed lightly, "Angels, Demons, Lucifer and Lilith."

Dread crossed the young man's face as he sat the rest of the way up, "Mmm light conversation..." he muttered shambling to the bathroom.

"Yeah," he nodded then smiled at the rumble of a classic gas guzzler roaring to life in the parking lot. _Sounds like a Chevy _he thought glancing out into the lot and watching the badly painted black Nova pulling out onto the street.

_Looks like a beautiful day out there. Some folks might even call it 'God given,' _he smiled tightly while waiting patiently for Sam to return.

OOooOO

_DAMNIT! Why won't it heal?! _She gasped leaning against the wall, the pain was nearly blinding and more than punishment enough for only bringing two pills with her to the boys' room.

_Who knew 20 feet could look like 20 miles_ she thought willing herself to find the strength to just get to the room. Once there she could collapse if she needed to.

"Y'alright?" A faintly nasal voice asked coming up from behind.

Laura forced herself to straighten up at least a little. She tried to breathe deep as she turned toward the voice, and as the newcomer's knee drove deep into her abdomen exploding death-wish agony through her body, she didn't even feel the blackjack come down against the back of her head.

"Well that was a helluva lot easier than I expected," Mary breathed taking a hasty look around to ensure she wasn't spotted as she draped the emissary's arm over her shoulders and hoisted the unconscious woman to her feet. Another look around and she dragged the woman out to her old '77 Nova, rolled her into the trunk and quickly wire-tied her hands behind her back and her feet together.

She dashed hastily to room number 3 and slid an envelope out of her back pocket and under the mat then grinning giddily dashed back to the car.

"Piece of cake!" The heavens were smiling on her. After all, if she wasn't doing good work then how could she have just barely noticed the emissary's car parked behind some old Bronco and how could she have been so lucky to have the bitch leave her stuff in her own room while spending the night seducing HER men!

_Oh yeah... now you're gonna get it! You don't get to touch MY husbands you filthy heathen whore! I get you somewhere nice and quiet and I'm gonna driiiiiive those demons out of you and set you free! It's God's work and my Dean will thank me, this test will prove I'm ready to go after Lilith... bitch hurt my sweet angel... Sammy... I'll avenge you sweetheart. _She vowed and began to hum.

OOooOO

Just over on the far side of the BIG river, in a place called Hannibal it picked up the scent again, tendrils of the fragrance of home criss crossed this land, usually attached to the packets of energy it craved. There was one not too far from here and so it detoured, turning back north just a little bit until it reached a lovely little two story in a quiet little neighborhood. The name on the mailbox said Schumacher, the silly craft fair plaques at the front door; one a fisherman and the other a woman's ruffly panties while she bent over a garden, each said Mark and Barbara respectively. These particular words meant nothing to the creature as it swooped past the RV parked in the driveway, slid through the screen and then through a keyhole in the front door.

It raced with singular intention into the living room where Mark sat in his recliner dozing with the television on one of those fishing programs, and as his mouth opened with a stony snore it slid down his throat and began to feed.

It emptied him out quickly leaving a dried husk behind and squirmed its way back out into the open as Barbara moved from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron, "Mark honey you're snoring... I swear I'm gonna go get the tape recorder!" She joked before looking up into the mummified remains of her husband.

As she screamed, it took the opportunity to finish feeding before returning to its journey.

OOooOO

"There's something going on at the office," Imdugud's host nodded as Dean opened the door, "And this was under the mat for Mar...Sam." he corrected himself, still unaccustomed to using their mortal names.

"Thanks. What's going on? Do you know?" Dean asked taking both the envelope for Sam and the larger manila one that held Laura's hospital records from India, as the demi-god entered the room.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head then breathed deep and frowned, "There are plagues. A pestilence was born here and has touched someone... to death. And the curse of madness lingered but it is gone..." he opened his eyes and looked deep into Dean's greens, "Where is the... Laura?"

"She's in her room getting dressed."

"Hmm..." he frowned.

"My strength of purpose grows day by day. I will avenge you." Sam read aloud then grimaced as he looked at a photo, "Jeez..." he hissed.

Imdugud and Dean moved to his side and looked at the photo of a pentacle carved into a belly, the shape of the hips and waist confirming that it was a woman plaguing them.

"Madness," Imdugud frowned, "This is your stalker?"

"Yep."

"Uh huh." They said together.

"People are crazy." The demi-god shook his head.

"That's what I keep saying!" Dean shrugged, "Hey can you get any kind of a scent sample from that thing? You know... using your natural form?"

Imdugud looked from one to the other, "I told you, madness. This stalker of yours is afflicted with it, I can smell it. But the scent is fading so for the time being it's not at this location."

"Great."

"Avenge what?" Sam asked frowning and shaking his head.

Imdugud's eyes lit up and he started moving around the room sniffing the air.

"You said you also sensed..." Dean started but found himself curiously watching the ancient being. He couldn't recall ever having seen him do this before and was kinda fascinated by it.

"Pestilence," he nodded, "It was here, it was all over this place..." he moved to Dean's duffel bag and started rooting through it, sniffing his clothes, "it shouldn't have been able to bypass the wards unless..." his thought trailed off as he continued to follow his nose in spite of the curious and fairly apprehensive look on both boys faces. It's one thing to sniff your own clothes, something entirely different to have someone else do it. Suddenly the eldest Winchester found he was a little self conscious.

"It didn't get through the wards, it was all over you..." he looked at Dean and pulled out the jeans he'd been wearing the night before last drawing a deep breath at the crotch. "And the woman..." he sighed as Dean yanked the garment from him while Sam chuckled and the bringer of pestilence continued non-plussed.

Surprisingly enough both Winchesters knew he wasn't talking about Laura, but instead the realtor Dean had spent the night with, the same one who'd turned up dead yesterday morning, murdered in the bathroom of the office in which she worked.

"Okay, suddenly I really am not liking this..." he turned to his little brother, "Sam, go to the office and find out what you can about whatever's going on there."

"Imdugud, we think the stalker was squatting in one of the vacant rooms, she startled one of the staff here yesterday, do you think you can..." Dean started.

"Consider it done my king... mm," he grunted frustrated then corrected himself, "Dean." Shaking his head as he left the room he muttered, "I do NOT enjoy such familiarity... it is disrespectful..."

"Y'know," Dean smiled turning back to Sam, "plague and pestilence aside, I like that guy."

Sam smirked and shook his head, "Even plague and pestilence have their place in God's plan... which... by the way we have a conversation to finish." He reminded the older man sternly but stepped out into the bright beautiful day.

"I know, I know and we will." Dean nodded. It'd been hard enough to tell Sam that back in Pennsylvania when he _thought_ he'd killed Dean, that he really had. Or more honestly that his abilities had been used to kill him. But to tell him about meeting Castiel and the seals, and that Lilith was breaking them but that they had no way of knowing which ones she was going to break was bad enough. He'd been working his way around to the hardest fact yet, the thing he most deeply did NOT want to burden Sam with that the child Lilith had raped his baby brother for was in all likelihood not intended to wage battle against Lucifer for his throne, but because of Sam's very blood and the line of his soul, combined with Lilith's own powers and demonic heritage would provide Lucifer with the most powerful living vessel possible. He wouldn't have to fight his way out of hell like so many other demons did. The child would be a doorway conceived especially for him and he would walk the earth among the mortals set to destroy humanity from the inside.

_How do I tell him that? _He shook his head sitting down with the medical records and wondered what else this day would bring them.

OOooOO

Imdugud made his way up the sidewalk, his senses focused on the scent of madness that had been there. Beneath the cloying stench he could smell the king's woman and knew she'd recently been this way.

The layers of scent were thick and the timing of them close, Laura he knew, and the stalker had covered the same spot as if they were on top of each other. They might have even literally crossed paths.

Laura's scent told him a great deal, she'd begun to hemorrhage again as she was returning to her room.

He stopped, momentarily confused as he lost her trail. Behind him Sam headed to the office where a County Officer's car sat.

With a quick glance around Imdugud tried the knob on the last room and finding it locked, broke it. He stepped into the room frowning against the stench of contained insanity and burned blood and paper.

Following his nose to the bathroom he leaned over the tub and picked up several of the six burnt bits of paper, his vision easily picking out the pattern beneath the charring.

Gingerly he slipped the bits into the trash can and continued searching the room finding remnants of herb and in one area a bit of burnt hair. These too he put into the can and slipped back outside.

On the sidewalk once more, having returned to the area in which the queen and the stalker seemed to have crossed paths he paused. His eyes searched the parking lot and he frowned. He recognized the Impala, with all the accoutrements it contained in its trunk it fairly glowed even against the bright afternoon light. And he recognized the emissary's car, but something nagged at him.

With the trash bin under one arm he felt his brows furrow and stepped onto the lot right into a combination of scents that should not have been.

"Not good." He breathed turning back toward the room just as Sam stepped from the office and jogged easily toward him.

"The emissary is gone." He called across the parking lot heedless of whoever might hear.

"What?" Sam asked pointing to her car, "No, she's in her room, she's in 5."

"No my king. She is gone. Taken." He specified.

"What?" Sam stopped at his side.

Together they walked to room 5, "Her scent is in the parking lot, layered with that of your stalker, and yet her car remains. And she has not touched this door in many hours."

"She didn't make it back to the room?"

"No."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked as the ancient one broke this lock too.

He raced with the demi-god back to his room.

"Dean!" he burst inside, fear easily read on his features as his big brother looked up from the documents, "She took Laura."

OOooOO

Laura opened her eyes the darkness around her seeming to slither in the faint glow of oil lamplight. Slowly she came to realize she was gagged, tied in a chair and that she'd been stripped to her underwear.

A rough hand with long nails wedged between her legs and came away glistening with blood, "God has already begun your punishment by removing your evil offspring from this world!" the woman before her hissed and wiped her hand clean on Laura's face and down her chest.

In a moment when she could see clearly again she studied the woman, trying to place her. She'd seen her before but the auburn hair wasn't right, _it should be brown, _she knew, _where do I know her from?_ She wondered not bothering to pay attention to the mad woman's ravings.

"You have sinned against all of God's creation with your prideful pagan consorting! I have been sent to erase your influence on God's chosen Earthly Kings. With your heathen ways gone my men can return to doing the good Lord's work..."

_Aw hell didn't Criminal Minds already do this? Sure Season 2, episode 15... Revelations... too bad I'm nowhere near as smart as that BAU kid is... they'll come, they'll find me and they'll come. _ She recited the mantra of her belief as her captor whipped around and stormed across the room returning quickly with a metal basin.

The captor tilted the chair back setting the front legs of it, including Laura's bound and bared feet into it, and began to fill it up to her ankles in water. When she was through with that, she began to add salt.

"In my other life I once dated a priest... well we didn't really _date, _it was more like private bible study if you take my meaning." She cocked a smile and met Laura's eyes.

Doing everything she could to keep calm as icy water numbed her feet, _holy crap! Fruit loop's done herself up to look like me! _She realized and felt her heartbeat pick up, _They'll find me, somehow they'll find me._ She chanted inside but cocked her eyebrows at the other woman to show she did understand what she was saying.

"Well he told me once that all holy water is... is heavy water that's been blessed! Aint' that just the shit!? So I looked it up on the internet... how to make heavy water y'know? ... It's just Epsom salts! Can you believe it!?" She grinned like a teen sharing a secret crush at a slumber party.

_Every hunter knows that you freakin' MORON! _ Laura thought but nodded and tried to keep her expression apologetic. Apparently that wasn't the right response.

"Yeah well maybe you knew it but not all of us had someone to teach 'em to hunt and kill demons! Some of us had t'learn how all by ourselves!" she hollered striding out of the room toward an area that seemed to be a kitchen, "And it was HARD!" she called from the other room.

_Great I'm stuck here with Single White Fruitloop, sitting in a vat of homemade holy water, still hemorrhaging...y'know... they shoulda left me dead._ She sighed trying to pull against the restraints but each pull seemed to result in another plink of blood into the basin. She looked down watching the droplets fall into the water and thought about the conversation she'd had with Dr. Bajrami, a physician whose family had served more deities than she even knew existed.

"_You're not stable enough to walk to the bathroom let alone drive, or go back to America even if it IS through the veil. Your uterus was shredded. I should have removed it and just left the ovaries." He argued. _

"_No!" She bolted upright and instantly regretted it, "It'll heal, the sidhe are helping. I need to give him children... I need to be able to do that for him if it's what he wants!" _

"_Getting pregnant again could kill you... do you believe your Enki would rather lose his mate?" he argued angrily. _

"_The sidhe will help, it'll heal please." She pleaded._

"_The sutures don't hold. It's as if everywhere Lamashtu's claws touched, the flesh will not knit." He sat beside her and took her hand, "Have the hysterectomy, adopt some children, there are plenty to choose from." _

She frowned, _if I'd just let him do it, I'd be healed and woulda never got into this mess. The three of us woulda had this nutjob tucked away in a heartbeat!_ She huffed, _Stupid pride... times have changed, it's not like he'd stop loving me if I couldn't give him an heir. Except I think he might..._ exhaustion cottoned the edges of her awareness as her captor returned with a car battery in her arms.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks. Sifi.


	9. Chapter 9

Gimme Shelter – chpt 9.

By: sifi.

OOooOO

By the time Imdugud was capping the bottle of white school glue the first couple of gently coated pieces of the scorched paper were flexible enough to slowly flatten. One by one, with each of them added to the puzzle a form finally became visible.

Sam sat back and sighed, "The symbol is a tulpa. Unlike the other one, the one in Texas?" he refreshed Dean's memory then pointed to a pretzelized kind of serpentine ring, "Well this one is used to manifest a very particular kind of thoughtform, called an Egregor," he explained. "It's capable of carrying out some pretty complicated instructions, the 'if, but, and; and Or kind..." noting Dean's questioning expression he clarified, "The same kind that runs most computer programs."

"Why is that not good?" Dean asked, his mind on several other issues at the moment so his concentration was less than usual.

"It gives the thoughtform a LOT of autonomy, and the capacity for judgment."

Dean scowled, "Pretend I don't have a clue what you're..."

"Watch Dean, IF he picks up a girl, follow them AND IF they have sex THEN wait till she's alone AND he can't be implicated, AND kill her." He rattled quickly, giving an example that made the older man swallow hard but acknowledge that he got the point.

"Aww come on... you don't really think..." he protested weakly.

"Well, according to this..." he tapped the computer screen, "these kinds of thoughtforms were frequently used as assassins so it makes sense Dean."

"You used similar creatures often enough my king." Imdugud nodded then looked between the brothers' curious expressions, "Or so it was rumored." He cleared his throat and continued, "And that they found the child's remains mummified most certainly confirms that it was left alive too long and has become a wraith."

"I HATE those things!" Dean scowled rubbing his arms, "They're creepy as hell!"

Even Sam nodded. He wasn't keen on anything that just sucked the life force out of people. "Yeah but on a positive note at least we know that the concentrations of energy needed to bring a thoughtform into existence can pretty much only be found in nexuses or vortices."

"And they're drawn back to the energy they came from," Dean groaned scrubbing his face and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Yeeeah." Sam nodded watching curiously.

It took several long seconds then Dean hung his head and drew a deep breath. Several more seconds later it gushed out of him.

"Great..." he frowned sarcastically just before he smacked the younger man on the knee, "Pull up a map Sammy," he motioned to the computer as Sam set to work, "now all we have to do is follow the eventual trail of flash dried mummies and hope this thing can be coaxed back into its happy little alternaverse or get it set up in the middle of an electrical field and fry it's dusty butt."

"This evening I will follow the scent of your stalker and your..." he stopped and corrected himself again, "Laura."

"Where did you lose Lilith's trail?" Dean asked suddenly.

"What're you thinking?" Sam asked having wondered the same thing just then. Sometimes it was as if that connection they'd had ever since the Turnbull case, and all the way through the war against Nergal was still there. At odd moments it seemed either man would almost swear he could feel what the other one was. _Maybe it's some kind of residual effect from the Asag's venom._ They thought.

Dean eyed the scowling demi-god, "Relax, she's a slippery bitch, it's not your fault."

"Near Yellowstone Park. She's using geomagnetic energies to camouflage herself from me... just as she always has," he sneered then spat toward the door, "The coward!"

"Is she leaving a trail of bodies?" he asked absently.

"Not that I've been able to determine... I wish she would though... it would make it that much easier to track her..." he snarled.

"What's up Dean?" Sam asked.

"Thoughtforms aren't the only things that live in vortices Sammy. There's things in there you don't know about," he muttered, one hand caressing his trigger finger, the same one that had been broken in his 13th year. Still his voice and his gaze were both very far away, facts that didn't sit well with the younger hunter. "Things that might want Lilith to think they're gonna help her."

A knock on the door a moment later startled the group as they were refining their strategies for tonight.

"Mr. Carson?" a girl about Lucy's age handed him an envelope.

"When did you get this?" Sam asked looking past her out into the parking lot.

"Early this afternoon," she shrugged, "It was in your mailbox when I came on shift. I think Jenny took it in."

"Is she still here?"

"Yeah... she's..."

"Take me to her," he ordered handing the envelope to Dean who followed with Imdugud right behind.

"Well whoever the hell she is, she's not entirely stupid." Dean snarled a few minutes later upon returning to their room after learning she'd apparently paid a high school student that no one knew, to deliver it.

Angrily he slit the envelope and spilled the contents out onto the table, a letter and another picture. He passed the letter off to Sam and turned over the photo. A second later he was sliding numbly into the chair with a hand over his mouth.

"Dean?" Sam took the photo and hissed, their stalker finally revealed.

Whoever she was, she had shoulder length auburn hair, a little redder but a similar cut to Laura's. She wore her make-up similar to how Laura did hers, and apparently didn't mind having a little 'keeping-up-with-the-emissary' work done, or doing some herself.

In the picture she was leaning close to Laura who sat in her bra, bound and gagged and smeared with blood, the look in her eyes was one both men were familiar with, it spoke volumes as it told them, 'I can handle it,'. The stalker however, was completely naked on top. She had one hand proudly cupping one of her bruised and recently augmented breasts while the other cupped Laura's, an obvious attempt at comparison. On her belly was the recently carved pentacle.

"What's it say Sam?" Dean asked softly.

"Pray for her peace and salvation my loves for the lamb has lost her way and at the hour of the sabbath's start she shall be returned to the bosom of the shepherd. When the time for grief has passed I shall be there to give you comfort, hope, and love, and to stand beside the Brother Kings as wife, mother, and lover to both. With love, Mary. Soon to be in God's eyes Mrs. Sam and Dean Winchester." Sam finished and with a disgusted grimace tossed the letter onto the table where Dean and Imdugud each took turns reading it.

Sam grabbed the picture and shook it, "Y'know I may only know mom through pictures, but THAT, that's no Mary Winchester I know."

"Okay to give comfort and love... beside the brother kings... wife, mother and lover to both... am I the only one who's finding this more than just a little creepy as shit!" the elder hunter stormed.

"Nope." Sam shook his head.

"Uh uh." Imdugud did too.

"Good," Dean nodded nearly breathless, "Glad I'm not the only one."

"So now what?"

"We have one day to find her, about 30 hours. The Sabbath begins at sundown tomorrow night." Dean grumbled.

"The question is what's she gonna do with her until then?" Sam asked and though none of them wanted to know for sure, they all had a pretty fair idea.

"Holy shit!... Dean!" Sam slapped him on the shoulder, his gaze on the TV screen that showed the news headline, 'Couple discovered Mummified in their home!' and the location listed as Hannibal Missouri.

"That was fast." Imdugud noted.

"Where's the nearest vortex or nexus?" Dean asked as he and Sam pored over the map.

"Looks like it might be headed for Sedona, there's a cluster of 'em there, well four. It went south from here, if it wanted Oregon why not head directly west then north y'know?" Sam noted.

"Anything in between?" Dean asked as his little brother shook his head, "Alright Sedona it is."

"My king," Imdugud started, "your mate..."

His eyes pierced deep into his ancient ally's, "If I get my hands on this psycho, whatever I do to her I will not only be good at, but I will most likely enjoy, and I've got enough dirt on my soul right now."

Though he could feel Sam's curious gaze on him, he didn't look at his little brother, _Oh yeah by the way Sammy, I forgot to... well neglected to mention that while I was dead for those four minutes to ME it was actually 40 years, in Hell. And guess what? I found out I have a real knack for tearing other peoples souls apart. How did I come to that conclusion you ask? Heh... Well you know I held out for about 30 years before I finally couldn't take getting sliced, gutted and carved anymore and finally got off the rack myself. The deal was I could...as long as I put other souls on. See, I just couldn't take it anymore, but once I started... it's a lot easier than you'd think really. And guess what, I have a talent for it! And between you and me? I LIKED IT! _He thought wiping away a disobedient set of tears that went AWOL down his cheeks.

To his surprise it was the demi-god who nodded as if he'd heard every thought, "It is the nature of a God to test his chosen. Often those tests are vicious and cruel."

Dean nodded, "So I'm trusting you to find them. Save my girl and keep her safe while Sam and I take care of this wraith problem."

"What shall I do with her once I have found them?" he asked.

Dean glanced from Sam's openly curious face to their ally's and sneered, "If she goes peacefully, call 911 and handle it. If she doesn't... give her to the swarm."

"Dean!" Sam gasped.

"It's the choice she made when she took what's mine." He tossed over his shoulder.

"What about Laura?" the younger hunter asked.

"She'll understand," Dean nodded, "She always does."

OOooOO

In the darkness ahead of him, Sam kept his gaze on the Impala's tail lights, though his thoughts were on Dean. He didn't know whether to be angry with him for keeping the fact that he actually _did _die AGAIN to himself, or to believe that he really hadn't remembered until the dream.

_Five more minutes! If he'd shown up five minutes later we could have finished the conversation and Dean would have spilled whatever he's still sitting on. _He shook his head, "I mean what?" he asked the empty air beside him, "Is it about the baby? I can't believe _this _is how..." he stopped himself trying to ignore the raging agony his body still felt whenever he remembered what she'd done. Everywhere she'd touched him, his skin seemed to erupt in what he'd swear were burning wheals, but aside from the scars there was nothing to see. _Just one more way for Dean to think what a 'girl' I am... except he hasn't. Probably cause it's not funny. Thanks for 'getting' it Dean... it helps. _

"So it's gotta be, I mean she's breaking the seals to set him free. The easy thing to believe would be that she's gonna raise the kid to wage war against him for the throne, but if that was the case, why break the seals." He sighed, "The fact is, it's more like she's going to give birth, tear the soul out of it and make it a vessel for him. I mean if that's the case then he doesn't even have to break out of hell once the seals are broken. He's got a ready-made conduit." He shook his head knowing in his guts that that was how she would set him free.

"Damnit Dean, why didn't you just tell me?" he shook his head overwhelmed by the burden of sorrow that the situation existed at all, and gratitude for a brother who still did everything he could to keep him from _any_ kind of harm.

"When they made you man, they sure as hell broke the mold." He chuckled and sniffed, _and what was that whole, "...whatever I do to her I'll probably enjoy it" thing? And "Give her to the swarm."? Dean whatever it is dude... you gotta let it out._ Sighing deeply he was glad that they were in separate cars, and although he didn't know it, he was comforted by the warm hand of the angel sitting beside him.

OOooOO

_A funny thing happened while I was being electrocuted... _Laura thought while fighting the vibrating shivers that raced her nervous system, from her hands where the jumper cables were clamped, all the way down to her feet still sitting in and now kinda boiling in a basin of salt water.

"Boy that's a stubborn one you got in you. I just don't wanna come out!" the pretender huffed and removed one of the cable clamps.

The emissary took a moment to unclench her teeth really glad that the fruitloop had removed the duct tape, _better to let that pesky ole demon out right? I don't know if it's cause everything else hurts like a sonofabitch right now too... but the cramping's actually not so bad right now...wow...relief, what a concept, and all I had to do was get fried. _

Behind her the self taught hunter began to move in a clockwise circle along the outer rim of the pentagram on the floor while spewing butchered Latin. Laura rolled her eyes and thought, _widdershins dippy... counterclockwise..._

OOooOO

FBI Headquarters; Behavioral Analysis Unit; Quantico, Va.

"This is 26 year old Mary Jane Watson of Laughlin Nevada." Special Agent J. J. Jareau, a vivacious blonde, recently returned to work after the birth of her first child, introduced the team to the latest victim. The first shot was of the woman as she'd been in life, brunette with brown eyes and a contagious smile.

A snort from Morgan, an ex-Chicago Cop with a football player's physique and a passion for taking down the 'bad guys' had all eyes on him in a heartbeat, "Sorry," he blushed, "Mary Jane Watson?" he asked J.J., "For real?"

With a wry and faintly sad smile she nodded, "Yeah for real."

Across the table Dr. Spencer Reid, twenty seven years old with an I.Q. on the edge of 190 points shook his head casting glances at the faces over the room, "I don't..."

"Aw come on Reid... even you gotta know this one?" Morgan smiled but the young doctor shook his head, at a loss.

"Peter Parker's secret crush?" Morgan shook his head already knowing the younger man wouldn't get the association.

"It's a reference to the Comic Spider Man." Agent David Rossi, one of the team's most experienced analysts spared the young man any further awkwardness, stepping in so SSA Hotchner aka "Hotch", the team leader could pretend he didn't find enjoyment in time spent with his colleagues.

"Oh," Spencer nodded.

Shaking her head J. J. continued, "This is how she was found, early this morning by her husband just coming home from the third shift," she moved on to the next slide which showed the woman's mummified remains.

"A month ago they took a spiritual sabbatical to Sedona Arizona."

"He found her like that this morning?" Spencer asked.

"Yes."

"And she was alive last night?"

"Yes." J. J. nodded.

Reid motioned to the screen, "That state of mummification would indicate at the very least a decade under ground." He mused.

"You would think so. So did the county coroner initially," J. J. nodded.

"You said they both went on a spiritual sabbatical to Sedona... do we know if they were going for the vortex or the ley lines?" he asked.

"The vortex." She nodded.

Looking around the table Spencer took a moment to fill his second family in on what he knew, "The Sedona vortex is said to be a portal for demonic and other malicious entities to enter our world. Native American tribes from the Apache to the Sioux gave the area wide berth... it was said the evil there would turn brother against brother and tear apart the tribe." He shrugged, "It's kind of become a sort of a test for self proclaimed spiritualists... like if you can resist the evil there then you're on a higher spiritual plane than the next guy." He looked around, "Uh... or girl."

"Okay so bad juju," Morgan nodded.

"Well technically 'juju' is a term that originated in the..." he stopped, instantly recognizing the look on J. J.'s face, "Sorry."

Still, she smiled easily at the young man before motioning to the newer slide on the wall, "This is Cecile Mathers. She was discovered in her motel room just outside of Las Vegas, the night before last by a pizza guy delivering her order," she advanced the slide, "also mummified." She continued on to the next slide, "Steve Bucholz, self proclaimed 'spirit guide' for the Sedona Center for Spiritual Harmony, he was found in the same condition as the others yesterday morning after failing to show up at work."

"And the common thread here is that they were all recently in Sedona on sabbatical?" S.A. Emily Prentiss another wickedly sharp team member asked.

"Yes." Agent Jareau nodded and continued, "Other than a recent trip to the vortex there are no ties, no common employee links... the locals were thorough." J. J. frowned and forwarded the slide again, this time to a husband and wife, "These are Barb and Mark Schumacher from Hannibal Missouri. And lastly Lucy Perkins from Winchester Illinois." She pointed to the desiccated teen, "Her mother found her like this about two a.m. after she got home from a late shift at the hospital... Lucy Perkins, the first victim has never been to Arizona. The Schumacher's just returned from a two week tour of the Southwest. The vortex was one of their stops." Agent Jareau turned off the projector, "None of the bodies showed any signs of trauma or abuse and more intriguing, no signs of predation, not from insects or wildlife. There weren't even flies in the rooms."

"Were they exsanguinated?" Rossi asked frowning faintly.

"No sir, all of the bodies showed the proper volume of blood particulates... just no fluid."

"They're dehydrated like raisins," Spencer cocked his head to the side, "Did anyone test for embalming agents?"

"No traces."

"Higher levels of sodium?" Hotch asked.

"The Egyptians used to basically soak bodies in rock salt for 100 days..." Rossi added.

"I was going to say that," Spencer smiled.

"Sodium levels were all normal. There is no indication that any of these mummifications was done chemically."

"But no trauma to any of the corpses, no signs of an attacker at all... this really sounds more like something for the CSI's, or physical science guys than for us." Morgan half shrugged.

"Or for a geologic team if their singular commonality was a visit to the vortex, with the exception of the first victim," he shook his head "Lucy was obviously a victim of opportunity maybe even an accident, but definitely something that got the ball rolling." He looked around, "It's not likely that it's actually the location right? I mean hundreds of people go there every year without incident." Spencer added, "And I can't imagine a human body dehydrating to that degree in the time it takes to deliver a pizza. It's just not possible."

"Which means there's another factor that ties all these folks together somehow," Rossi nodded.

"No one would have tied these cases together except one of the officers in Illinois that was called for Lucy Perkins' case happened to see a news report about the couple from Hannibal. Then after Cecile Mathers the news affiliates picked up the story and ran with it. Maricopa County, Apache Junction, and Oak Creek Canyon offices have been swamped with calls from recent vacationers who are pretty terrified that they could be next. To help cool the panic local authorities have had surveyors of all kind out there looking for toxic ground seepage, taking air samples, analyzing minerals and salts in the area, and what they're asking from us, is some kind of assurance that there isn't a human being responsible for somehow causing this." She shook her head.

"We're not the X-Files... though it does present an interesting challenge," Spencer seemed to contemplate, "Dehydration is a time consuming process, but the level of cellular preservation in these victims is..." he shook his head, "Incredible. And yet no one would simply stand by and allow themselves to be dehydrated through mechanical means... there would have to be some outward signs of trauma." He glanced around the table all the signs of his piqued curiosity easily read.

"One of the reasons we _are_ considering this case is this man," she handed out profile sheets to the team members, "Tommy CrowHawk. Over the past twenty seven years he's been arrested a dozen times for malicious mischief, vandalism and a couple of assault charges for trying to keep people out of the area. He claims he's a guardian of sorts..."

"Of the area?" Rossi asked.

"No sir," she shook her head, "In spite of his record, he claims he's a guardian of human life."

"With six bodies across the country all we're being asked for is a 'rule out'?" Hotch frowned.

"Yes sir," J. J. nodded and sighed, "The thing of it is that there ARE SIX bodies, and if there _is_ something to be found..."

Hotch nodded, his countenance still stern as he turned to Reid, "Didn't you request a few extra days off for the week after next?"

"Yes," Spencer nodded and looked around, "Mom's birthday weekend."

Hotch cracked a rare and faint smile as Reid nodded, openly eager to go.

"I sure wouldn't mind snooping around Vegas," Morgan shrugged, throwing his two cents into the mix.

"Me either." Prentiss smiled.

Hotch and Rossi looked at each other for a quick nod before turning their eyes back to Morgan, "You've got point on this one," Hotch agreed, "We'll work whatever we can from here."

Moments later with the BAU room empty and the three agents on their way to the airstrip, Spencer began looking into methods of mummification.

OOooOO

A/N – Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the story our special guests from the show Criminal Minds: Dr. Spencer Reid, Special Agent Emily Prentiss, and Special Agent Derek Morgan. Other members of the FBI's BAU team include; SSA Aaron Hotchner, SSA David Rossi, Technical Agent Penelope Garcia, and of course the radiant Agent J. J. Jareau.

Tbc. (I was gonna break it down into two stories.... but it didn't really wanna get split up, so I didn't.)

Please R&R.

As always, many thanks!

Sifi.


	10. Chapter 10

Gimme Shelter – Chapter 10

By: sifi

OOooOO

Bell Rock, Arizona.

"So what are those things again?" Sam asked crouching low with the 50 lb sack of specially blended salts, herbs and minerals over his shoulder as Dean levered up the first of the sandstone boulders that marked the innermost boundaries of this vortex.

"Boulders Sam... big honkin' boulders..." the elder brother's voice strained under the weight of the marker while the lever bent precariously, "Hurry up!" he grunted, "Next one... YOU'RE lifting!" he strained.

_Bitch bitch bitch, and you call ME a whiner? _Sam huffed, _maybe if you were a little taller and worked out a little more instead of doing twelve ounce curls you could handle it. Or are ya just getting' old? _He thought but bit his tongue. _With my luck he'll get distracted and drop the damned thing on me. _"Levering Archimedes, give me one long enough and a fulcrum big enough I can move the world," he muttered continuing the line along the rut they'd dug.

"Whatever." Dean rolled his eyes_ there you go genius, Archimedes... you think I don't know who he was don't cha? Y'know you really can be holier than thou sometimes. Got so damned big cause you had to have a place to store that big squishy brain of yours... freakin' sasquatch_, and he was just about to open his mouth when a series of heads bobbed along the ridge line up by the road, "Awww shit Sam, we got company."

Sam quickly finished this part of the line so Dean wouldn't have to raise the boulder up again which meant he wouldn't have to hear about it again.

"Go, go,go, go!" Dean urged hotly as his little brother raced to a cluster of low rocks about fifty yards out and leaped behind them.

Just as the group started moving down a gently sloping grade Dean jerked the bo he was using as a lever out from under the boulder and ran with it leaping behind the set of rocks and landing on Sam in the process, just as they rounded the bend to approach the first vortex marker.

"Ow mother ffffuu....shit! Damnit Dean!" Sam hissed throwing the older man off him so he could curl around the stabbing pain in his low belly.

"Son of a bitch! What the hell are these guys doing out here? Shouldn't they be hacking someone's e-mail?" he scowled scrambling to look at the three FBI agents accompanied by two local officers. "No way we're moving."

"Good." Sam groaned trying to pant through the pain.

"Quit being such a baby." Dean scowled, "I didn't hit you that hard."

Sam's gaze lit with fire, _y'got me right in the jewels you son of a bitch... c'mon tell me you didn't do it on purpose! TELL ME!_ He wanted to scream it right into Dean's ear and the only reason he bothered to control his rising temper was because of those five interlopers. "Screw it... what the hell man? I mean what can they do besides get us for littering?" He started to roll away from Dean as if he was about to get to his feet.

"Oh no you don't! Get DOWN here!" he grasped Sam around the back of the neck and swept the younger mans' left arm out from under him, then held him tight and hissed into his ear, "You've been giving me shit all day ass hole ... now we stay DOWN until they're gone do you understand me!?"

Breathless Sam nodded as the pain in his crotch dulled to a throbbing ache full of hot embers, "Tell me about the things." He bargained and didn't buy his big brothers, 'I don't know what you're talking about' face.

"The fen things... that live in these things."

Dean shook his head and glanced at the three agents. The larger man looked like he'd most likely played football, _probably how he got his ride, _the woman looked like she could throw-down with the best of 'em, but the one that really caught his eye was the kid. _He cant' be more than twenty three, twenty four... I thought they have age restrictions... probably a consultant or something. _"I thought these guys were supposed to have some meat on 'em? That kid's scrawnier than you were at 13 dude." He noted the red finally making its way back down Sam's face and neck and shook his head, his anger turning back on himself for being so careless, "Sorry man, you know I didn't mean to hit you let alone in the nuts."

Slowly the younger man nodded, "I know... think it's the vortices getting to us?"

Dean nodded watching the younger man, "That plus." He sighed, "We haven't slept in close to 30 hours there's less than10 hours for Imdugud to find that bitch and rip her heart out!" he growled then motioned to the markers, "And this _is_ the second one we've been to today, the tats are for keeping demons out not bad energy."

"Damnit!"

"What?" Sam asked finally able to turn and peer at the group. The blonde haired young man crouched at the trough and fingered the concoction, "Don't break the line, don't break the line."

"It's not done anyway we still have to go back and finish it." Dean muttered as the young man followed the line moving away from the other four, the two senior seeming agents were ardently discussing things with the local police, and the woman was taking notes while the man seemed to be pointing to markings and graffiti on the rocks.

"Ho shit!" Dean huffed barely remembering to check his volume as the kid seemed to take flight with a yelp that got the attention of the other four. Dean made to get up but Sam yanked him back down.

Both hunters hissed as the young man came to rest with a sharp bony sounding 'thunk' bent backwards over a boulder with one arm stuck up against the bole of a saguaro cactus.

"Reid!?" they heard the larger man shout.

"Spencer!" the woman called as all four converged on the young unconscious man. Beneath his head a line of red ran down the sandstone, and between the cactus and the rock both Sam and Dean watched as a dark gray shadow seemed to break out from other darkness and disappear uncomfortably close to the young agent.

"They GOT it what's the matter with you!" he hissed as Dean slowly returned to the ground.

"He's just a kid."

Sam tapped his chest and pointed, "Did you see that?" he asked with wide surprised eyes.

"Son of a bitch," Dean groaned watching for signs of the shadow emerging from some other direction but there was nothing, "Yeah. We're gonna hafta go pay a visit Sammy, make sure it didn't attach itself to him."

Sam arched his eyebrow at his brother, "How? The last thing either of us needs is to hop back on the FBI radar, especially after Henricksen got us OFF it."

Dean dropped his head and looked over to Sam feeling the sting of having lost that particular newly acquired ally. "That's one more we owe Lilith for... so is Nancy, and the deputy, and the... countless freakin' others whose lives that bitch has ruined." He nodded leaning his back against the rock and looking at his little brother, "We might have to take a different approach on this one Sammy."

"You don't mean..." Sam shook his head, a look of dread on his face.

"Yeah," Dean nodded, "We might have to use the truth. Sorta."

"Shit." Sam sighed then peered back around.

Both men turned and sat cross legged, facing each other so they could more easily watch what was happening at the vortex.

"Looks like they're calling an ambulance, we're not going anywhere for a while."

Sam nodded, "So tell me about those creatures."

Dean shuddered, "The Foenwyn... fugly little pixie-rat lookin things... freakin' bastards!"

"Pixie-rats?"

OOooOO

She held up one of the pictures, wagging it angrily in front of Laura's face, "Come ON I know you're in there somewhere FIGHT! Fight this thing! I can't give you peace if you don't help me get this thing out of you!" She screamed then shaking wiped the sweat from her brow.

"There is no demon in me." Laura panted shaking her head and working hard to hold back the tears as the picture of the man she loved literally driving himself home inside another woman drew her eyes to it.

Her head snapped back as the woman's fist connected once again. She'd long ago lost the ability to focus with the left eye for all the swelling, and at this moment wished her vision was just as blurry on the right. It was one thing to know he'd bedded someone else, something entirely different to see it. _Is it sick that even seeing this I wish it was ME in that picture?_ She wondered as the next punch popped her jaw and a glut of blood exploded into her mouth.

"Help me help you!" the pretender screamed into her face.

Laura huffed a chuckle and looked around at the floor, the pentagram drawn and the five extra symbols, each one tucked into a crotch of the star. She hadn't used those symbols in over a year, almost two, and except for that one time, she'd never used them before then either. _Ingwaz, The Lucky Hand, The Dog... you learned real good didn't cha? But how? Did you follow me in? Did you watch from outside a window? Did you see the hell hounds trying to defend their mistress? Did you see the igigi eat the demon and her dogs?_

With her senses reeling and consciousness tenuous Laura chuckled and let her head roll down, the sound bubbling out of her throat deep and ominous, "Why would you choose this?" She asked just above a whisper, "Why would you _choose_ to leave your job, your life and become a hunter?"

The woman pulled up a chair and sat before the emissary then reconnected the battery to her hand oblivious to the spasms, grunts and whines that poured out into the cabin, "Do you know how many people I've seen make deals with that bitch? How many people whose fortune's changed only to have it all ripped away a decade to the minute later?" She asked.

Clenching her jaw to keep from biting her tongue off Laura made some kind of sound that could have been, "Uh,uh."

"Dozens, maybe even upwards of fifty. I tended bar at Ernie's since before I was legal to drink myself."

She sat back and took the cable off her hand for a moment's rest. Slowly blood seeped from Laura's nose, plinking off her chin onto her chest while the water in the tub continued to go from pink to crimson. _I won't last much longer... I have to hold on, they'll come. They'll find out where we are and they'll come. _

"Do you know how many people I've seen stand up to that bitch of a demon?" She asked.

"Hu,huh...m,m,mmany?" She stuttered watching sweat droplets fall and splatter on her thighs.

"Just one." She said and poked her in the chest, "You." Then leaned back again. "I have no idea what your bargain was with her or why you went after her the way you did, but I watched you and I knew, like a flash of light what I had to do with the rest of my life."

_And isn't it ironic, don't cha think... c'mon Alanis... sing it with me... it's like rayeeaaaaaiiinnn on your wedding day! It's a free riiiiiiiiiide when you've already paid... well fuck me backwards... maybe later, after the hemorrhaging stops. I made a monster. _

She leaned forward smiling brightly into the emissary's face, "You're my inspiration. After you left the old Tool and Die shop, I went in and copied down the symbols so I'd know what they meant, including the binding link you'd ripped into her skin to keep the demon in there. But," she looked around conspiratorially, "Do you know I'd never hit another human being until that night? I mean she was already dead, and you did a real good job beating the shit out of her y'know? But still I had to practice y'know? I had to learn how much force it would take to break bones from the little ones to the big thigh bones. The ribs were easy, the smaller bones in the forearms weren't so hard but the upper arm bones, and the thigh bones," She nodded with wide eyes, "I tried to break them in a different place than you did but I couldn't get the leverage, they were too strong! How did you do it?" she asked then shrugged, "just between you and me?"

Laura shook her head, "You don't want to know."

She leaned back and smiled then put the cable back on her captives hand, "You used something, see I couldn't watch everything, there was like smoke getting in the way y'know? So I missed some stuff, but you used something... what was it? Another demon? A golem?"

Clenching her jaw and fighting the urge to puke then pass out the emissary shook her head and watched the woman draw on a pair of heavy rubber gloves. _It was all me baby, _she thought watching the woman's expression turn into a deep frown as one by one she held up a dozen pictures of Dean with the woman from the other night. Each new image was punctuated with a vicious punch whether to the face or the body didn't matter. After a time Laura didn't feel anything anymore.

OOooOO

"They're gonna keep you over night, you know it's just a precaution." Morgan smiled at Reid's bedside.

"You were out for almost a half hour and you've got half a dozen staples in the back of your head," Emily added. "We're having a sample of that powder you found analyzed. In the meantime Morgan and I are going to finish up with the local police around here, talk to the folks at the Sedona Center for Spiritual Healing and then go talk with Tommy CrowHawk. We should have a solid 'rule out' by morning." She filled him in on their progress.

"It looked like rock salt, bits of metal... I think there was some lye or lime, and probably white phosphorous in there too judging by the tingling I'm still feeling on my fingers." Spencer shook his head gently, his eyes flicking up to the corner by the door and a shadow that seemed to almost, breathe, "And there were some plant components in there, it really didn't look like something that could... unless it was cut with something," he frowned slightly dazed and seeming confused.

Derek and Emily shared a concerned look, "Look when they let you out of here Hotch wants you to take a couple extra days, make it a nice four day weekend y'know?" Derek explained then suggested, "Maybe head on up to Nevada, see your mom."

"I don't need to," Spencer started to protest and pushed himself up but a blinding set of sparklers behind his eyes stopped him, "Wow, I don't think I've ever had a concussion before." Noting the amused expressions on his the faces of his colleagues and considering everything he had suffered already in the last couple years alone told them in no uncertain terms, "I don't like it."

Derek and Emily smiled easily, the older man leaning forward to pat Reid's shoulder, glancing over his own as the boy's eyes flicked once more to the ceiling, "Take my advice, take advantage of the time off."

"It's good advice." Prentiss concurred and handed over some basic notes, "Here, keep yourself occupied but stay in bed. We'll be back later with whatever else we can dig up."

Spencer nodded and flashed them a tight smile that Derek recognized, "Give us a sec will ya?"

"Sure." She nodded leaving the men alone.

Spencer looked into Morgan's eyes reading the curious concern on his face and shook his head instantly regretting it, "I don't know," he answered before Derek could ask, "I don't know what happened. One second I was looking at some of the drawings on the rocks and the next I was flying through the air... and landing really hard really fast." _Only it wasn't like a real landing, it was more like getting SLAMMED down... but there was nothing there. If I tell you this will you think I'm crazy? AM I?Am I... is this the beginning of _my_ break? There IS a hereditary propensity for... _

"You didn't see anyone? Or anything?" Morgan asked, and it looked like it might be the second time he did.

"Uh no, I kinda had this really strange sensation though, that 'my foot's asleep' feeling, except it was like my whole body." He frowned and raised his right arm a bit showing the blood freckled gauze, "they pulled seventeen saguaro cactus needles out of my arm."

"Yeowch." Morgan shook his head.

"Yeah." Spencer nodded but still looked like he wanted to say something.

"What is it Reid?"

"I think I'm hallucinating." He pointed to the ceiling behind the door, "I keep feeling like there's a shadow back there but that it's moving."

"It's probably floaters," Derek explained but looked behind the door all the way from the floor to the ceiling then moved the door back and forth, "There's a vent back here, maybe a draft from the AC's kicking the door just enough to give the illusion of movement."

Reid nodded and looked relieved, "Probably." He drew the bed table over his lap and started laying out the files Emily left.

"We'll be back later," he assured the young man, then held up his cell, "In the meantime, if you need us..."

"I will," Spencer nodded, "Thanks Morgan."

OOooOO

Boynton Canyon, Arizona (the third vortex)

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Dean turned pressing his fingers into his little brother's chest.

Sam leaned in slapping the older man's hand away, "It means if you weren't so damned reckless in the first place that it never would have happened!"

"So you're blaming me?" The look in Dean's eyes was clearly a warning that Sam recognized, but he just couldn't stop pushing the older man's buttons.

"Yeah," he nodded sick and tired of his big brother's selective memory, "I do Dean... who else do you know who would've loaded a septic system with M80's to get at a water spirit!" He shook his head as Dean smirked with the memory, "Not only did we wind up covered in shit from head to toe we're both lucky as hell we didn't wind up dead when the floor gave out!"

Dean nodded still grinning at the memory, "I was just following orders Sam we HAD to get that thing out of there so dad could kill it!"

"I don't believe you man," Sam shook his head and grasped his big brother by the shirtfront, "You never take responsibility for your actions! You almost got us KILLED!" and then he swung, his fist connecting with Dean's jaw with bone crunching force.

"Son of a bitch!" the older man frowned and as he straightened up threw a hammer fist of his own.

In mere seconds, and for the third time today they were a tangle of arms and legs with blows, holds, and kicks being traded in a volley that grew more forceful and furious with every evasion or strike.

The owner of the eyes watching from a couple dozen yards away grinned until the tall brother picked up a shovel, and the shorter one pulled a bowie knife from the back of his jeans, also for the third time this day. But this time their fight hadn't taken them to the edge of the energy field where the effects could be shrugged off. _Time to step in_. He thought.

Raising his gun over head, he stepped from behind the rocks and shot several rounds into the air and off to the side, "That's ENOUGH!" he hollered angrily and approached, surprising both the men he'd been watching all morning. "You two fight like an old married couple! Now do you wanna finish this or do you wanna kill each other?" he yelled tossing each of them a small white sock that had been sewn closed across the top.

"Maybe we wanna kill each other!" Dean turned frowning at the guy and feeling the contents of the tiny packet.

"Yeah." Sam agreed examining the one that had been thrown to him.

The leather faced old man laughed and tucked his six shooter into the waistband of his pants, "You boys got balls I'll say that." He stood before them both smiling and waited for them to put their respective weapons down. A second later when they did, he extended his hand, "Tommy CrowHawk. I been watching you all morning. What's a couplea hunters doin' dickin' around with the portals?"

"What are these?" Sam asked.

"Just a few odds and ends that'll help confound the energies... won't completely protect you from their influence but it'll help you be able to fight it better."

"Thanks." Dean stuck the packet into his jacket pocket and shook the man's hand, "I'm Dean, this is Sammy."

"Sam." The younger hunter corrected as his big brother smirked.

"What're you boys up to? Why all the attention to these things? This got to do with the wraith headed this way?"

Surprised the brothers nodded, "Yeah actually it does."

Tommy shook his head and led the boys back to the ring then crouched down fingering the concoction that filled the trough. "What kinda fool doesn't kill a thoughtform within twenty four hours? That's what I wanna know." He frowned then looked up at them, "Interesting mix you got here." Rubbing his fingertips together he glanced up with a smile, "Got some lye and a LOT of magnesium in here too huh?"

Sam shrugged, "We needed something caustic to amplify the effect of the salt..."

Tommy stood up after wiping his fingers in the dirt, "And the magnesium to burn hot enough to melt the iron to form the binding ring." He nodded and smiled impressed, "That's pretty damned brilliant."

"Thank you." Sam sighed glad to find someone who would openly appreciate what he'd come up with.

"Do you know which one it belongs to or is that why you're ringing them all?" the old Apache asked.

"That's why we're ringing them all." Dean nodded.

Tommy shrugged and motioned them to walk with him a bit, "You fellahs need to simmer down a bit take a break and fill me in... hey you guys now a hunter named Bobby Singer?"

"Mighta heard of him...up in Nebraska?"

"North Dakota? Or was it Minnesota?" they tried to play dumb and got a hearty chuckle.

"I owe that boy, he helped me bust down and old summoning effigy up in Flagstaff a few years back. I hope he got a good price for that amulet we found though...be a shame if he didn't. You see him, you boys tell him CrowHawk says 'hey'."

They stood letting the residual effects of the vortex leech out of them while they chugged down a couple bottles of water at the guardian's car and explained the rest of their plan.

Before the boys returned to their work, and Tommy went to get what may be needed to fry the wraith if it came down to it, they exchanged numbers and finalized a loose plan.

"A lot of it's gonna depend on the kid, since it didn't kill him outright it might be planning on using him, and if that's the case he could be in serious trouble." Dean explained.

"If the thing attached itself to him, if he'll believe us, if we can even get in to see him," Sam sighed, "Maybe we can prevent any more deaths... IF he's willing to help."

"That's a lotta 'IF's'" Tommy nodded and sighed, "I expect those fibbies to be out to see me at some time today... whenever something happens out here I'm on the short list."

Dean nodded and smirked, "Yeah, I know that feeling."

Moments later, with their tempers cooled the boys returned to their work while their new possible ally left to attend to the business the FBI was going to bring to his door.

OOooOO

Imdugud took a look around, turning this way and that trying to determine which way the stalker had taken Laura. His heart burned with fury at the audacious pretender, and plenty of loathing for his self. He'd failed to protect her, even after she'd donned the amulet granting him permission to protect their offspring. _The next king was in my care and I failed... I will not fail either of them again! _He vowed and in spite of the fact that it was daytime, ducked behind a tree and unfolded his natural form from within his host. A scant second later cloaked in a hot breath of southern wind, the bringer of pestilence and plague launched himself into the air, his multi layered stony wings throwing gusts of drying heat to the ground as he sought to regain the scent of the wounded queen.

OOooOO

Every cough and sputter stuck like spears in her lungs and abdomen as water exploded from her throat, simply out of reflex.

"I said leave this woman be!" The pretender shouted and started spewing more butchered latin that sounded like otherworldly mumbo jumbo as she pressed Laura deep into the bathtub full of salt water.

"There's no demon..." she sputtered and gasped again as she was brought up for a split second then shoved under again.

She'd tried kicking, she'd tried getting her bound legs around this bitch's neck in the hopes that she could snap it quickly but from the instant she was pulled from the chair her opportunities had been slim, and with her arms bound behind her, chances at leverage were even narrower. So instead of fighting, she conserved her energies and sought stillness. It was something to focus on besides the heartbreak of having seen those pictures of her man tasting another woman, filling her. The long straining line of him arching back while he loosed himself deep within her. _It should have been me. He shouldn't have had to turn to someone else, if I'd been there maybe I could have eased him._ Stillness was something to focus on instead of her quickly waning hope. It was something to focus on beside the hugely growing possibility that he might choose to continue on in his life with Sam at his side and leave her to fend for herself. And it was something to focus on beside the fact that at this moment she'd never felt more desolate.

As the pretender's hand pushed down against her chest and she looked up through the shimmering pink water once again, the only reason she didn't simply breathe the fluid in was the only other need she had, no matter what may happen when all was said and done, _he did seem glad that I still wanted him... as if I could choose any other..._ there was no way she was going to let this psychopath gain access to the men she considered HERS. And so, for them and to honor her need to protect them, she practiced stillness.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks.

Sifi.


	11. Chapter 11

Gimme Shelter – chpt 11.

By: sifi.

OOooOO

"Are you sure it wasn't one of these Foenwyn creatures?" Sam asked levering down the last marker at their last stop, Airport Mesa, while Dean closed the circle.

"No Sam I'm not sure," he huffed and told himself yet again that it was the energy of the vortex that was stirring his pot. At CrowHawk's suggestion they took several small breaks while finishing their endeavors and only broke out in two more fights, neither of them pulling weapons these times. "but those corpses, I mean if Shep and Caleb hadn't been ready to work that binding ritual," he shook his head, "Dad coulda turned out lookin' like that. But I thought we took care of 'em."

"That's the summer you broke your trigger finger?" Sam tested the waters, he knew that those few days in Dean's 13th summer had changed his brother forever.

The elder hunter scowled, "Yeah." And made his way around the exposed circle of minerals in the trough, dousing it with lighter fluid.

"You were on your way back from the vortex when you ran across..."

"YES SAM! THAT's The SUMMER." Dean snarled.

"Sorry."

"Mm."

"How come you never told me about these things before?"

"I thought they were done." He crouched and struck the fire starter knowing the heavy quantity of magnesium in the powder would burn hot enough to melt the iron shavings and seal the area for a good while. The heat would penetrate even under the markers and whatever didn't melt would keep under the weight of the rock and the seal would remain unbroken. All they had to do was wait for the fire to die, then bury the ring. "It didn't occur to me that there could or would be more."

"So what do these things want?" He asked already feeling the effects of the seal. The itching frustration that burned inside was starting to cool and just like his brother, they both began to breathe easier as the tension seeped from their shoulders.

"What do any of these things want?" Dean shrugged and started packing up their tools while Sam moved around the circle, sweeping sand gently over the mineralized band, "They try to make you do evil things, they get inside your head and push your buttons, they fire up your hate, stoke your insecurities and feed rage..." noticing that Sam had stopped what he was doing and was looking at him he stopped, looked at the younger man and shuddered, "...and they look like pixie-rats."

"So you keep saying... I mean I get the thing about the rats... but Dean have you ever even seen a pixie?" Sam asked, "Do they even exist?"

"Why not?" the older brother shrugged, "Sidhe exist, why can't pixies... and unicorns..."

"...that shoot rainbows out their asses," Sam added.

"Exactly... can't forget that part."

"And dragons that bind the universes apart," Sam listed.

"Yep, them too."

"Y'know I used to think our lives were weird."

They slung their belongings after burying the seal and headed back toward the road and the patiently waiting impala.

"And now?" Dean asked.

Sam shook his head, "S'good to have confirmation."

Dean smiled and shouldered the younger man, "Anything else?"

"Nope. That's pretty much it." He grinned, "Oh wait... one more thing."

"What's that?"

"I'm friggin' starving!"

Dean smirked, "Thank God I'm not the only one... so food while we find out who our trio of agents are?"

"And a really big cup of ice..." Sam groaned adjusting his jeans before dropping the bag with the last couple pounds of their mixture into the back seat then sliding in beside his big brother, glad to have left Laura's car at the motel.

"I really _am_ sorry dude..." Dean chuckled, "You know I didn't do it on purpose right?"

Off to the west the late afternoon sun caught the older brother's attention. When would it get dark in Illinois? Did that psycho keep her there or did she take his girl somewhere else? Would Imdugud be able to find her in time?

"Mmm," Sam nodded reading the look on his brother's face far too easily, "He'll call once he's got her somewhere safe Dean. He'll find her and save her."

"Speaking of which," Dean nodded sliding the car into drive and pulling out on the highway, "we need to finish our conversation Sam, there are some things you still need to know."

OOooOO

_Wake up!_ Spencer's eyes popped open as that damned shadows up in the corner tried to crawl down toward him. Try as he might though his eyes fluttered closed and this time the patch of gray waited just a little longer before moving out of the corner and starting on its cautious crawl toward him.

OOooOO

"This way," Dean nodded to the left. In spite of the clock on the wall he checked his watch then looked outside, maybe trying to determine if the sun was moving faster than it should be. He even pulled his cell and checked for messages. Sam noticed there weren't any yet.

"Right there," he patted his big brother on the shoulder and pointed to the corner room, trying to keep his mind on the job instead of where it wanted to go. A split second later the older man was tearing down the hall.

"Sam!" pointing at patch of gray slithering over the sleeping agent's sheets.

"Spencer WAKE UP!" he shouted sliding into the room, his stun gun in hand. He plunged it into that mass of gray just a couple inches above the young man and discharged it.

"Hold this!" the taller stranger pressed a piece of paper against his chest and slid a mirror under the wad of gray air. A split second later the young agent felt his eyes grow impossibly wide as the electrical arc moved through the wholly insubstantial looking blob of _actually it's kind of an un-color _he thought. The arc skipped down to the mirror and bounced back up. A split second later an ear piercing shriek had each of them wincing as the entity squirmed out from under the green eyed man's hand and raced out of sight.

"You alright?" he asked while pocketing the stun gun. At the same time the taller one pocketed the mirror he also tapped the sheet of paper on Reid's chest.

"Fold that and keep it on your person," he directed while digging through his pockets.

Spencer looked from one to the other, something catching his eye out in the hallway. He thought for a second that it might be the shadow but instead was faced with a scowling nurse, "Sorry..." he called waving apologetically then assessed the men again, the shorter one was inspecting the area around his bed and in the corners while the other finally found what he was looking for and pulled a small coin sized amulet out of his pocket threaded on red silk.

"Put this on and don't take it off till we get rid of that thing." He directed then met the other's eyes, "Still here?"

"Up in the corner I think, hard to say unless it moves."

"So there really IS something up there?" he asked sitting up straighter to examine the spot, he glanced at the piece of paper, remembering the symbol from some of the boundary markers, "You're the ones who started the ring around the vortex..." he looked back and forth between the two, "Who ARE you?"

"Put that on." Sam directed again.

"It's a St. Quirinus medal." Spencer looked at it and shook his head before sliding it on, "Considered a martyr he was beheaded after he witnessed miracles and after converting to Christianity refused to execute three other saints. There's some speculation that his martyrdom wasn't really about that, but actually about an ancient Pagan secret he wouldn't give up, even under threat of dismemberment. Eventually his medallion was used to ward off evil spirits while soldiers were off at battle."

The older one smirked his eyes wide, obviously impressed, "He's good." Then offered his hand, "I'm Dave, this is Neil."

"You obviously already know my name... I'm Spencer Reid," he shook their hands in turn then asked, "What was that? And is it really real? Uh and if so... How'd it get in here and why is it hanging around me?" in spite of the seriousness of his questions, his expression was open and brightly curious as he glanced at the medallion again while the older man pulled up a chair and leaned in, his own expression bright and his smile absolutely huge as if he'd never spoken with anyone curious before. He looked reflexively over his shoulder at the younger man who also pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the bed.

"He's gonna love this," he smiled then turned back to Spencer, "That... was a wraith, and it's trying to attach itself to you, most likely because it wants to use you for something."

Spencer couldn't help but chuckle, "A wraith? As in mythical supernatural harbinger of death type wraith."

"Well it sure wasn't the Stargate Atlantis type now was it?" Dean asked, then turned to Sam, "Kid's almost as smart as you."

"Smarter." Sam nodded extending his hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you Doctor Reid. I read your thesis on the transference of ethics and morals across cultural boundaries and its affect on the lawmaking process. Your observations and insights were incredible and the way you were able to trace threads of current law back to ancient Mesopotamian cultures was... mind blowing." Sam looked at Dean, "He wrote it in his Senior Year of High School."

"Ancient Mesopotamian cultures?" Dean spocked his eyebrow at Sam, the curiosity on his face easily read.

"Yeah." The younger hunter nodded.

"Is there _anything _that's coincidence?" he asked barely believing the likelihood of it.

Sam shook his head and shrugged helplessly, at just as much of a loss as his big brother, "I don't know."

Not understanding what passed between the two men, the agent shrugged.

"Are you a lawyer?" Spencer asked eyeing Sam, he'd be surprised if he was. He knew they were brothers and the younger one was letting the older man lead the way. He also knew they'd purposefully not used their last names which indicated that it was likely the first names they gave were fake. The only thing that had the young agent keeping them in his room was that they'd obviously come to help him, whether they'd created the problem or not they were serious about not seeing someone hurt, and they had... if he could trust his own eyes and senses... quite possibly saved his life.

"I was pre-law before real life got in the way." Sam smiled.

"By real life you mean chasing down non-existent death omens?" he looked between them and saw the older one give a quick shake of his head.

"You saw it, you heard it scream... _my _guess is you've been seeing that thing all damned day, at least since you got here and you haven't said jack squat about it cause you're scared to death that someone's gonna think you've gone round the bend... I mean there is that whole fine line between genius and insanity..." his smile told Reid everything he needed to know.

The young agent felt his shoulders fall and took a deep breath wondering just how this new dimension of information was going to be wedged into his slightly more solidly fact based world. He did find it oddly amusing however that no matter what they were hiding, the one thing _he_ would want to lie about, the wraith itself, was the biggest truth they were telling.

"Then there's the whole fighting against going to sleep thing..." Sam interjected, "You know that's when the victims were attacked." He leaned back, "Wraiths are... rare but when they're created they feed on life energy... just like those space Goths from SGA and leave mummified corpses behind."

"There's more truth in fiction than you'd think." Dean interjected.

"Did you know that the original communicators from Star Trek were actually modeled after something similar from... I think it was a Dick Tracy storyline..." he shook his head, "Oh, uh not that I actually read it or anything but, but someone once told me that," he sighed finding that he was getting a kick out of the look of bright joy on the older man's face, "Okay, so they're real." As soon as he admitted it Reid felt the blood rush out of his head as his stomach flipped over.

"Uhp!... here y'go." Dean reached across and handed the young man the pink plastic bucket, both he and Sam recognizing the sudden pallor with a tinge of green.

He moved quickly to the bathroom grabbing a handful of paper towels and soaking them with cold water while Sam poured a cup of water for when he was finished dry heaving.

"Lean up," Dean ordered rearranging the pillows behind him so they would hold the paper towels against his neck when he leaned back, "back...good." he nodded curtly and smiled then caught a glimpse of Sam smirking on the other side of the bed. "What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head. It'd been a long time since he'd watched Dean take care of someone. Aside from what little Laura would ever let anyone do for her, lately it had been him and Dean needing the most help. The last time he could remember seeing his big brother really in full-on caregiver mode, at least from the outside was the last time John had a concussion before Sam even went to college. _Why do I keep forgetting that it's really his nature to be kind?_

"Thank you," Reid breathed and sipped.

"Man you got six staples! Last time I got 'em, I got 8..." He looked at Sam who nodded that he remembered Eddy Jay's attack almost four years ago now, it seemed so far away, "Sucks doesn't it? Can't scratch 'em and it's all you wanna do!" the elder hunter smiled easily.

"To be honest I hadn't thought about it till you brought it up..." he winced and reached for the back of his head.

"Tap 'em... it's the best you can do... and it does help at least a little." Dean suggested leaning forward.

"So these wraiths..." Reid shook his head, "they're not supposed to exist."

"But they do." Sam nodded sitting back down.

"Why'd it kill those people?"

"It was working its way home. Here."

"How does something like that... how... I mean, I understand that for all the species we've encountered, identified and cataloged that there's still potentially a surprising amount that we've never seen before, many of which may actually be the basis of so many of not just our cultural mythos but literally on a global scale..."

"They exist. You'd be surprised," Sam cut him off not unkindly but definitely curious about the look of pure joy on his big brother's face. It was exactly the same kind of look he'd get back in High School when Sam would race to him with some new bit of information he'd picked up in school. _But he got so used to it that later it couldn't be just ANY bit... _he remembered and blushed deeply, _What'd he call it?... Oh yeah the 'light of discovery' face. _He could still feel Dean's fingers on either side of his chin, those bright green eyes shining into his, inspecting him and saying with a knowing smile, _"Oooh you discovered something good today didn't cha Sammy? Was it about girls?" another brief inspection, this time of the red creeping over the boys' face, "It WAS! She kiss you or you kiss her?" and depending on the depth of the blush Dean's grin could grow impossibly huge, "You kissed HER!... that's m'boy!" and he'd sigh like a proud father, "Wait till you learn about the bases... mmm home run..." with a wistful smile on his face before he sobered and pointed at his little brother, "You just wait on that... make sure you're at least 14 or 15 or something... gotta be able to keep control of yourself... that's important, for the girl." I think I ran into the bedroom and slammed the door right after that..._ Sam huffed a chuckle with the memory.

"Dude!" Dean grinned at his brother, "This is awesome!" then sobered just a little with Sam's faint shake of the head. He leaned in toward Spencer and started what would turn into a more than two hour long conversation on the literal nature of energetic manifestation, "In the case of wraiths, believe it or not, it's a matter of physics..."

OOooOO

"I'm sorry," the pretender shook her head while stirring the irons in the fire, "I've tried everything to get this demon out of you. I wanted to be able to ease his pain, I wanted him to know you went to your rest at peace and free..." she sniffed back her tears, "but I guess I'm just not good enough yet," she turned and kissed Laura's forehead, "I'm sorry."

"They won't accept you." Laura gasped, her voice near a whisper as the energy she'd reserved by not struggling began to coalesce deep inside, _you don't touch what's mine. _

She nodded, her eyes weary but bright, "Of course they will. They'll grieve for you but then when they see what a wonderful wife I'll be for them both, they won't have any choice."

"No one can serve two masters. You cannot have them both and still hunt."

"Yes!" she nodded frantically, her eyes wide as if convincing Laura of her capability meant everything, "Yes I will... maybe _you_ couldn't but I can, I _will_! And I won't have to leave them, I won't have to abandon them... don't' you know it's family that counts most? I will NEVER leave them to SUFFER ALONE!" she stormed suddenly while the same energy Laura needed continued to gather and slowly, the same power that enabled her to destroy the crossroad demon gently stretched itself awake.

OOooOO

"You think he'll call?" Sam asked slouching down in the hard plastic chair and sipping at the coffee, grateful that the cafeteria was on the lower level so there were no windows to look out of.

"If he'd found her he would have by now..." Dean answered into his cup.

"I meant Spencer." Sam reflexively checked his watch, "It's still summer Dean, sun'll be up for another couple hours."

"Here. Not in Illinois." He looked up, his eyes red and drooping with exhaustion, "If he doesn't... so help me God I will kill that psychotic bitch." He shook his head and gritted his teeth, "I learned a whole lotta new ways to carve..."

"Stop it!" Sam hissed pouncing forward, "You're not gonna do anything! She WILL survive, if you think for one second she's gonna let go of this world knowing that some psycho like that is aiming to get her mitts on either one of us then you don't know her!"

Surprised Dean looked up and met his little brother's eyes, "That's a good point... that's a damned good point!" he nodded grasping once again for that tiny straw of hope at the same time his cell rang.

OOooOO

"You know you shouldn't be doing this." The nurse scowled deeply at Spencer while she tucked his AMA forms into his chart, "Your friends are right, you need to rest."

"I will. Just not here." He assured her with a smile.

"Reid where're you gonna go?" Morgan asked frowning, he didn't like this very uncharacteristic behavior from the young man.

"There's a Red Roof Inn just across from Bell Rock, I'll check in there, stay over night and in the morning go out and get some rubbings from the boundary stones. The glyphs are fascinating," he looked between Morgan's frown and Emily's 'I don't understand him' face, "There are symbols from at least seven different tribes, some of which aren't even indigenous to the area, as if multiple shamans came from all over to try and contain the negative energies there. From an anthropological point of view the cooperative efforts of so many..."

"Okay okay I get it," Derek stopped him, "I mean I don't get it but... Do you want us to stick around? Make sure you're okay?" he asked, his eye catching a glimpse of red around the younger man's neck, "What's this?" he pointed to it.

Spencer drew the medallion out of his shirt and let Morgan and Prentiss each look at it while he tried his very best to not notice the deepening of the shadow at the top of the wall, "Oh," he smiled shyly, "Someone from the chapel brought it up, said they go through 'em like crazy cause of the vortices."

"And you decided to buy into all this hokum?" Morgan asked.

"I decided to placate _her_." He corrected smiling just a little smirk-ishly while somehow forcing himself to blush.

Finally Derek smiled wide, "Ahh I knew there was something... so did you make a date?"

"No." Spencer looked at him the same way he did every time Morgan asked that question, as if to say, 'what's the point?'

Shaking his head and feeling oddly let down Morgan sighed, "Alright, so you don't have a hot date but you want out badly enough to sign out AMA, Hotch isn't gonna like it y'know."

"Hotch would be the first one to sign himself out if the situation was his."

"Good point."

"Besides," Reid sighed slinging his bag over his shoulder to walk with them toward the elevators, again, it was all he could do to keep from watching behind him, somehow he knew that damned thing was following them. "When was the last time anyone got any decent rest in a hospital?"

"Now THAT is the truth." Prentiss smiled.

"You don't want a ride?"

Reid shrugged apologetically, "I called a cab," as the elevator doors closed.

Once they reached the ground level the trio exited the elevator, "...if I can gather enough information together then maybe I'll write a speculation piece around my findings."

At the reception desk an extremely tall man with longish dark hair under a "Red Rock Taxi" cap turned at the sound of voices.

Spencer moved directly to him, "Are you here for Spencer Reid?" he asked.

The man looked at his clipboard, "Dr. S. Reid... that you?" he asked looking the trio over. "Hi," he nodded at the other two who nodded back.

"Yes that's me."

"Wow... either they're churning 'em out younger or I'm getting older." He motioned to the door, "Cab's out here, where are we going?"

"Uh...Red Roof Inn just across from Bell Rock."

With a nod and a lascivious glance over Prentiss the tall man took Spencer's away bag and left the hospital returning to the waiting taxi while the young man assured his colleagues that he was fine.

"If it'll make you feel better I'll even call tomorrow and check in."

"Who are we? Your parents?" Morgan chuckled but squeezed the younger mans' shoulder.

"No, but you are my friends."

Morgan shrugged, "Well that's all the excuse you need then isn't it? Do that huh?"

"I will," he shrugged and noted Emily's nod. "Safe flight home."

Together Emily and Derek watched the cab pull away with their friend inside it. What they couldn't see in the darkness was the shadow that slid beneath the taxi, hitching along for a ride.

"Do you think it's following us?" Reid asked meeting Sam's eyes in the rear view mirror.

"If it wasn't I'd be truly surprised."

"Have you heard from your brother's wife yet?"

"No," Sam shook his head, "not that I'm aware of."

"You know we CAN help you... if you let us, this woman who manifested this...wraith," he shook his head.

"I'm not sure if you'll ever get used to saying it," Sam smiled, "besides, I know, it's kidnapping, and stalking, legally we've got her dead to rights on both those charges, but this is the kind of person who won't stop. The escalation is way too fast."

Spencer sat back, "Sounds like you've done some psych studies."

Sam shrugged, "A little, between real life experience, the courses at college, the extra reading... and there's some pretty good procedural shows out there... one of 'em's called Criminal Minds, it's actually about a team of behavioral analysts..."

"I'm aware of it... I actually watched it once, no twice I think..." Spencer nodded, "it's pretty good, it's based on an updated model that Robert Ressler started back when what we did was called Behavioral Sciences... back then it was pretty 'fringe' type stuff."

"So how accurate is it would you say?"

Spencer smiled, "I'd say they use a lot of creative license, but the profiles are sound."

"Good to know. Do you think your friends suspect anything?"

"I think..." he sighed, "they know this isn't something I would normally do, but considering how exciting the carvings on the stones really are, I think they accept it. And when I show up on Tuesday with a nice sampling of rubbings and some solid research they'll be satisfied."

"So you really want to do that?" Sam grinned.

"Oh yeah... once we get rid of this thing, I'm gonna make the best use of time that I can."

Sam shook his head, "The best lies contain truth." As he pulled into the alley next to the Taxi Company he threw the car into park and turned to face the young agent, "How _did_ you know about my brother's girl?" It was something he'd been itching to ask ever since Spencer brought it up near the tail end of their conversation that afternoon.

Reid smiled, "Oh he uh, kept fidgeting with his ring, and since it's on his band finger I figured she's his wife... she is isn't she?"

Sam nodded in a yes/no fashion, "In the eyes of God or in the eyes of the Law?"

"Ahh... anyway... and every so often when he leaned on his hand, he'd rest his mouth against it. Then the compulsive checking of the watch, the sun's position." He shrugged, "the pain... I've seen that kind of pain before. Once we get settled can I look at what she's sent so far?"

"You'll have to ask him."

OOooOO

Hovering over the area that held the last vestiges of Laura's scent the ancient being cast his eyes toward the setting sun and frowned, the act changing the look of his naturally rabid countenance to one of nightmarish ferocity. _I will not fail!_ He held his fists out to the side and upon opening them, unleashed the swarm.

Columns of tens of thousands of locust burst forth from his palms spiraling into the air before diving toward the earth and moving outward in a circle from his current position. On the ground a faintly shimmering bit of air drew his attention and he dove.

In seconds, before that shimmering entry to the veil that separated worlds he knelt before the sidhe warrior the queen called Mustardseed who motioned and gesticulated wildly, his voice churning like rapidly flowing river.

"_We can't get through! She set up wards to hide her but we found them but we can't get through! I don't know if you can but you must tell the kings! She is preparing to kill the queen!" _

"Where?" Imdugud asked as the warrior grasped his hand and pulled him behind the veil then led the way, taking a shortcut.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thanks, sifi.


	12. Chapter 12

Gimme Shelter – chpt 12.

By: sifi.

OOooOO

Literally minutes after they reached Spencer's room and Sam drew his ward line in an arc around the door, a knock sounded. All three men looked dubiously at each other before Sam looked out the peep hole and with a wry smile opened the door admitting Tommy CrowHawk.

"S'about time you fellah's got here," he motioned to Spencer, "This the kid?"

"Mm hm," Sam nodded, "Spencer this is,"

"Thomas CrowHawk," Reid stepped forward smiling curiously but extending his hand nonetheless, "self proclaimed guardian of the vortex, over a dozen arrests over the last twenty seven years with..."

"Yeah you're a fibbie alright..." Tom chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck, "Smart one too."

"That he is," Dean stepped forward pumping the man's hand with gusto, "So how far along are we?"

"Got my boys laying down the lines, we won't get the generators in place until near sunup though. Elf's gonna get it all hooked so we can remote start any location at any time."

"Elf?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, short guy... pointy ears... wears a lot of green." Tom nodded easily, just enough so Spencer would know he'd probably never hear the person's real name. The old Apache turned to Dean, "We should get him out of here, we can't guarantee this place."

"Wait what?" Spencer looked a little unnerved, more because he was concerned over what would happen if anyone from the team called and he wasn't there than any sense of distrust.

"Yeah we should," Dean nodded, "Y'think?" he asked the younger hunter.

Sam nodded, "I'd love to get him somewhere easier to defend until we're ready to summon the thing to the vortex."

"Alright," Dean turned to the young Agent, "Spence, grab your bag."

"Wait where...?" he started to ask but did as he was instructed.

"Don't worry FBI man," Tom clapped him on the shoulder, "we got a nice little setup surrounded by lodestone, got a little bit of running water, and a pretty good generator for tv if it'll find a signal, and it's even close to a cell tower so you can stay in touch with Mr. Morgan and Ms. Prentiss, but mostly cause the EMF buggers the shit outta them bad energies, but then again so does the lodestone. You're gonna be fine kid." He guided the young man out of the room and toward the back door.

"You sure?" he asked getting a laugh from the old man as they headed out to the parking lot. "No seriously the human brain runs on electrochemical reactions and though it's never been proven that exposure to magnetic fields..."

"We'll take him and follow you Tom," Dean interrupted the young man with an easy arm across his shoulders and guided him toward the Impala. It may have sounded like an easy suggestion, but everyone knew it was a great deal more. He was taking full responsibility for the young mans' well being and even a new ally knew better than to try to challenge him.

OOooOO

Blood rushed, nylon tore into her flesh, a coppery glow lit deep in her eyes and her muscles strained but only for a moment before the zip-ties snapped and her hand came up around the glowing iron coming toward her face. As she rose to her feet, the iron bar bent like so much licorice away from her and back toward the pretender, her assailant's eyes bulged nearly out of their sockets.

"_Call me a demon? Fool, what you've awakened could have any mere demon quaking on the ground if I so choose!" _She hissed, her voice a strange slithery sound that only a small handful of living humans had ever heard.

"Wha... my god what are you?" the pretender choked falling to her knees before the enraged soul of the ancient goddess.

"_I am Inanna," _She cast aside the iron and grasped the woman's fists in her hands, snapping them both backwards with grotesque finality as the more slender bones of the forearms ruptured like dried twigs through her flesh. _"I am the Goddess of Love." _She continued to introduce her self through the pretender's screams and grasped her by the throat, _"I am the Goddess of Battle." _She walked across the cabin, motion out the window catching her attention as a swarm of locust raced at the simple panes of glass and burst through it, _"I am the mother of Marduk, King of the Gods." _She braced the woman against the wall then slammed down atop her shoulders with enough force to snap her clavicles, femurs, shatter several ribs and explode several vertebrae while severing many nerves that emerged from her spine. _"I am the Goddess of the heavens."_ Blood trickled from her mouth betraying the explosion, shearing and rupturing of internal organs as well, _"And I am Enki's One and Only Queen! There never has been another and there never will be another." _

All through the cabin the locusts waited, thousands sitting or hopping patiently on the floor with thousands more hovering in the air while outside, as if the cabin was enclosed in a bell jar Imdugud stood with a passel of sidhe. She could see the small warriors pounding on the barrier, trying to break the wards that had hidden her from them and kept them incapable of rendering aid. Imdugud threw spires of air that was hot enough to raise the temperature in the cabin nearly twenty degrees, and yet still not hot enough to burn through the wards.

With the threat neutralized in a flood of blood from arteries severed by the explosive rupture of the femoral bones and various organs, Inanna raised her hand and waved dismissively at the demi-god. He stopped and stood panting for his exertions craning for a look as she grasped the woman by the throat and tossed her easily into the wall of waiting insects barely taking a moment to watch them begin to feast.

Spying the door the warrior goddess moved through the cabin heedless of the injuries to her vessel and made her way out into the night toward those who sought her.

"_Where is my king?" _She asked.

Without missing a beat Imdugud answered, "He and Marduk are preparing to kill or banish the wraith created by your captor." He motioned to her, "My queen we cannot pass the barrier, you must come through it, I will take you to your men."

"_Your swarm is hungry Pazuzu, let them feast," _She used his Assyrian name then emerged from the boundary of the ward and caressed his cheek as the sidhe warrior Mustardseed wrapped his arms around her leg and kissed her kneecap. She smiled and grasped his shoulder gently, _"Thank you my friend." _Then turned her attention back to Imdugud, _"Tell me since I am arisen... what of Lamashtu and my son? Has she been slain yet for what she did to him?" _She asked allowing the sidhe warrior to draw her down to her knees where his mate MilkThistle and several of her ladies quickly adorned the queen in appropriate battle raiment's. MilkThistle herself strode up the woman's thighs and held a stone cup up to her lips.

"The filth hides where I cannot catch her scent, she is near a month with his child already, time moves far too quickly. Even the angels are beginning to fret."

"_And well they should!" _She nodded, _"And what is Cernunnos doing about this? Her raping of my son made a travesty of his every gift!" _ her voice may have been low but her face was filled with fury.

"He is moving through the population one by one to try and find her," Imdugud nodded watching as another cup of whatever brew they were feeding her was pressed to her lips and another female flipped up her skirt then pulled it down behind herself as she disappeared between the woman's legs.

Seconds later the vessel of the ancient goddess cried out in agony and half collapsed sending the sidhe into another frenzy of activity even as what little color had been left on her face drained.

"My queen?" the demi-god winced then asked softly as she shooed the diminutive people away and looked like she was about to try to stand, _and then most certainly fall if I am correct_. Reading his cue easily, the ancient Assyrian rose and guided her to her feet, "Your vessel has needs. Your mate has been mad for you. Let me take you to him so I can continue my hunt."

Exhausted she nodded allowing the ancient being to hoist her into his arms. "Open the way sidhe." He instructed, once more following Mustardseed behind the veil, in spite of his allegiance to Dean and Sam and their souls, no demon was allowed to walk unaccompanied through even the gardens on the outer rim of the underworld.

OOooOO

_Oh no... don't tell me it got in..._ Spencer thought while trying to peer into a darkened corner of the trailer, "Uh guys... I think it got in, and it's bigger."

Attention flew in the direction of his gaze where a sizeable bit of air began to shimmer faintly.

"Hooollleeee hell..." CrowHawk breathed.

"Nah...that's just the veil between worlds," Dean explained clapping the young man on the shoulder though his eyes betrayed his hope and its equal part fear as he neared it.

In the span of another breath it was easy to see that there was something very large carrying someone, _are those wings? What the hell is that? Lemme see its face..._ Spencer tried to will his eyes to get a clear vision as the person being carried was returned to their feet and suddenly the enormous seemed merely man-sized. _Oooh there's smaller ones... they don't have wings... an actual barrier between worlds? Can this really be real? How different is it than the multiverse theory... that suggests a kind of membrane separates the universes. Maybe I'm still in the hospital and this is all just one really crazy drugged up dream... it's gotta be, if this was really real I think I might be scared out of my mind._ He nodded to himself and watched the scene unfold as the now-man-sized apparition walked with a supportive arm around the woman's waist through the shimmering curtain to materialize into the trailer. They were followed by a handful of very short men and women.

"Laura," Dean gasped, nearly choking on her name as he moved quickly to her, taking her out of the newly arrived male's possession. "Oh my God... what'd she do to you?" he asked gently cradling her face in his hands. "I'll kill her... so help me God I'll..."

"_Shhh, she's been fed to the swarm my king." _Ina whispered into his ear before gracing him with a gentle smile and caressing his cheek with one hand.

The other reached to Sam and caressed his cheek before sliding around his neck and drawing him down for a kiss, _"My son..." _she pressed her mouth to his, lingering for a long moment that felt more than just a little awkward for those assembled in the suddenly very cramped trailer, _"What she has done to you...she will pay my son, this I vow." _She nodded and once more favored him with a long strong kiss.

"Hey," Dean's hand fell to her shoulder and turned her away from his brother with an oddly amused smile, "Watch it there runt, I know you have good taste," he said to the younger man, "But don't push it."

Sam gave a quick shake of his head, dispelling the haze that seemed to engulf his senses ever since that kiss on the Road To Dead. _"Sorry," _He half smirked, _"father."_

"Are they speaking an actual language?" Spencer asked looking between CrowHawk and the newly arrived male.

"Who?" Imdugud asked leaning against the wall and enjoying the show.

"All of them?" Reid motioned to everyone but himself and CrowHawk.

"Oh yeah," Imdugud nodded but said nothing else.

At the same time the queen's hand closed on Dean's throat and she lifted him off the floor driving him back to the far end of the trailer taking everyone by surprise.

"_I told you once before that I would never again tolerate your infidelity! And yet you have gone against my wishes!" _She stormed pressing him into the wall even as Sam tried to get her to release him.

Reid made to stand or protest but the demi-god, with an easy hand on his shoulder, kept him in his chair. "She'd never hurt him."

Swallowing hard he looked up, "Uhm, is it just me or are there about half a dozen very small midgets..."

"It's not just you... and they're not midgets, they're sidhe."

"That was five thousand years ago..." Dean choked, "I barely remember breakfast!" he gagged as her grip tightened and his face began to turn magenta.

Sam had a grip on her arm but couldn't pull her off his brother,_"Ina! Stop it! The vessel is fragile!" _he reminded her while ignoring his brother's frown of disapproval and ducking under her arm.

"I'm sorry," Dean apologized, "I was hurt."

Tears slid down her face as she released him and bowed her head against his chest, _"No my king, I am the one who failed. I was gifted with your child and I failed to save it." _

"Aww here we go," the Assyrian approached the trio and knelt before them, _"The fault lies with me, I failed in my duties and I will avenge the assassination."_ He turned his eyes to Laura, _"You will leave me with two kings and a queen to return to?" _

She nodded leaning into Dean's embrace.

"Then I'm off to continue the hunt!" he grinned rising to his feet once more. He turned to face Spencer, jack-knifed out of his host for a split second, just long enough to give the young man a glimpse of his true nature before he laughed and headed out the door.

Sam shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, Dean wrapped his arms around Laura and chuckled with his lips against her brow, Reid shook his head and appeared to be glancing through a catalog inside his mind, and CrowHawk just stood shaking his head, mystified.

Meanwhile the sidhe finished making the bed and began to demand attention.

Dean slid his arm more snugly around the exhausted woman and gently tilted her head toward his, "I promise," he whispered then brushed her lips with his, "Never again."

Her hand circled behind his head, gently squeezing his neck while her lips possessed his and her free hand slid down his front to gently cradle him, "Everything you are... is mine." She spoke into his mouth.

"Yes my queen." He grinned blushing deeply as the other three men blushed and looked away then returned to examining the map on the dining table while he maneuvered her into the bedroom and with the sidhe's help began to get her cleaned up.

OOooOO

A few hours later Dean emerged from the rear compartment that cordoned off the bedroom and bathroom, looking pale and just a little green, there were still splatters of blood here and there on his arms as he plopped into a chair beside Sam.

All three men had been watching a DVD waiting for word from Tommy's friend Elf that everything was in place.

From across the 'living room' CrowHawk handed over a bottle of whiskey and watched the older brother chug several quick swallows.

"That bad huh?" Sam asked.

"There's some things even a God doesn't wanna know about."

"She gonna be okay?"

"One way or another she will," he nodded slowly.

"And will you...?" Sam asked, the look on his face finishing the question between them.

Dean shook his head and took another series of chugs, "I don't know... she'll let it kill her before she stops trying to heal though."

"What happened?" Spencer asked then noting the 'where do I start' look on the older hunters' face shook his head, "I mean I do know some pretty capable doctors... whatever's wrong... that level of hemorrhaging... she won't be able to..."

"Thanks Spence." Dean nodded but didn't give him any information, just like he didn't give him the items the stalker had given them.

_J. J.'s the only other person who calls me Spence...seriously, is this real or am I dreaming?_ He wondered again as a male of the sidhe approached the older brother.

"_The women have done what they can for now. They say if she rests and doesn't overtax herself then its possible they may finally be able to get the womb to knit." _He shifted from foot to foot for a second then looked up into Dean's eyes, _"They did not think you would be able to, do...what you ... needed to do... you know, to help."_

"S'amazing what we can do," he paused glancing at the other men, _"for the ones we love _isn't it?" Dean nodded, "She sleeping?"

Mustardseed nodded, _"They gave her a draught. Unless the queen rises again she should sleep at least until morning." _

"Good," Dean nodded.

"Do you actually understand what they're saying?" Spencer asked.

"It took a while but yeah." Sam nodded as Dean cracked open a beer and chugged it hard.

"Can you...? What language is that exactly?" he asked.

Sam smiled, shared a look with his brother and faced the young agent, _"It is the language of the First Ones." _

Spencer shook his head then nodded his understanding, "You're not going to tell me..."

"I just did. But no."

He took a deep breath feeling so deeply out of his element but still finding an unusual joy in the discovery of the truth of so many myths that he couldn't help but wonder as he looked around the room, at the faces of the men there, "Am I dreaming this?" he asked.

Sam reached off to the side and gave a solid pinch to the kid's forearm.

"OW!"

"Nope, not dreaming." He smiled good naturedly with a shake of his head and passed over another beer.

A second later, he turned and met the young man's eyes, "Don't worry, as soon as you get back to your real life you can put all this on the back burner... you don't have to reconcile it right away."

"And on a positive note... long as you can stay away from anything supernatural you'll probably eventually convince yourself it WAS a dream." Dean added taking one last series of slugs from the bottle before passing it down to Sam who sent it on a circuit around the room.

OOooOO

"You sure you'll be alright on your own?" Dean asked mopping her sweat soaked forehead.

"Yeah," she nodded looking around at the sidhe, "they're barely willing to let me get up to go to the bathroom."

"Good." He nodded leaning forward to rub his temple against hers, "The trailer is secure, as soon as we kill this thing we'll go get a room at the Red Roof Inn and get you some good rest okay?" He smiled, "I'll even hustle us up enough money for some room service and maybe a couple massages okay?"

She bit her lips tight and nodded, trying to hold back the pain that made her want to scream and kill and die all at once.

"Go, be safe, look after each other," she swept his cheek with the back of her hand, "I love you both."

"Just as long as you don't want to be _married_ to us both." He smiled softly.

She smiled and shook her head, "That would be really not right."

"Glad we agree. Anything else I've got he can have... gladly, with pleasure... just..."

She cupped his cheek, "It's not like that. He remembers what it was like to be part of each of us when HIS soul was conceived, he remembers the love that created him... and like we all do, he craves it."

He squinted curiously at her then looked at Sam who was going over the plan again with Spencer, "He what?"

"Some other time, for now you have a young man to save. Go sweetie, and when you get back you can tell me the story."

OOooOO

It was nearly three a.m. when they each reached their destinations, Tommy at Airport Mesa, Elf at Cathedral Rock, Sam at Boynton Canyon and Dean and Spencer at Bell Rock, where the energy signature extended the furthest, ensuring that it was the largest vortex in the area.

"You do know I'm not really wild about this plan right?" Spencer confided, "It's one thing to know this wraith wants to attach itself to me for whatever malicious purposes it has in mind, but to actually let it do it and hope we don't fry me in the bargain, I'm not sure I like this."

"It's okay, I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise."

"So tell me again..." Spencer nodded, "We've got our unsub returning... well in this case to the place its energy was drawn from?" He walked the circumference of the ring, noting wires criss crossing the diameter of the vortex, and moving beside the hunter making sure they were all connected then tracing the lines back to the generator. "The thoughtform that was drawn from here was like a larva, and the wraith in this stage of the game is sorta the pupa... then what it attaches itself to me it becomes an adult?"

At the generator Dean leaned down, primed the pump and booted up the miniature computer, "Yep about like that, except sometimes they don't attach themselves to anyone and they can be mistaken for ghosts, which is how the whole death omen thing started...you saw it and yeah you were gonna die... but not from anything other than IT."

"I can't believe SGA got it so pretty darned right." Reid shook his head.

"Someone on that staff knows something ..." he turned to the younger man, "Look Spence, whatever this thing wants you for, you can bet it's not good. I have a feeling it wants to free other entities in there and if that happens I promise you, no good will come from it."

"I do understand. I'm not sure how I feel about all this being real but it's hard to deny looking into the face of an Assyrian Demi-God. The one that brought your... Laura back. He either IS Pazuzu or he's a very talented illusionist."

Dean smiled shakily wondering why he was so willing to let this boy see so much, _and I don't think it's cause hiding it would be too hard... he WANTS the truth even if he has to rearrange his reality for it. _"We call him Imdugud."

"His Babylonian name," Spencer nodded. "How is it that a couple regular guys and a girl find themselves, if I'm not mistaken and believe me I'm not, with subservient allies like an Assyrian demi-god and a cadre of faerie folk?" He asked looking deep into Dean's eyes, "Who _are_ you?"

"They're not..."

"He _knelt_ in front of the three of you. You said, 'That was five thousand years ago, I barely remember breakfast.' You called her 'my queen.' The sidhe tend to her, even the males, that one your brother called Mustardseed... like handmaidens. Now either you guys did 'em a really big favor... or more likely considering the deference shown... there's some kind of ...other thing..." he let the question hang a bit.

Dean shook his head, "We're not getting into this, you go ahead and think what you want, draw whatever conclusions that ginormous brain of yours wants, the only things you need to know are these; one, there's freaky supernatural shit out there and it usually likes to hurt people. Two, there's also folks out there doing their damnedest to stop them."

"It's some kind of bloodline thing isn't it?" he asked nodding his understanding.

"Yes!" Dean smiled clapping him in on the shoulder, "That's exactly it! It's a bloodline thing." Returning to the business at hand he pointed to the ring, "Look if I thought for a second that you'd be able to control me if that thing got ... well not that it could..." he thought for a second wondering if the seal would keep a wraith out, "Huh, we'll have to check that out. Anyway, point is, you've checked the layout yourself, you know Elf and his buddies set this thing up to act like one of those big static generators."

"A Van De Graaff generator yes," the young man nodded, "It squirmed away from you from the stun gun is that because it has both..."

"That's cause I didn't have a large enough field to force enough charge, fast enough into the thing."

"And why the setup for all the vortices? Just for precaution?"

"You ask a lot of questions."

"That's how we learn."

Dean laughed, "Man my brother used to drive me crazy when we were kids, 'Why's this happen?', 'what makes that do that?'..." _When's dad coming home? Why don't we have a mom? Why'd God take her away?_ His smile faltered.

"I remind you of him a little."

"A lot," Dean nodded, "When things were different," _before there were universes to save, before he was made a living blow up doll for a demonic she-bitch that wants to set Lucifer himself loose on the world in a human body that had its soul stripped... before I ever met an angel or went to hell and saw myself go darkside... _"I'm sorry man... I never should have allowed you to see the truth let alone showed it to you myself."

Spencer couldn't say what caused the older man's mood to shift so suddenly or so thoroughly, though he was certain it had a great deal to do with his little brother and the course of their lives but he shook his head, "No, Dave... or whatever your real name is... I'd rather have to find a way to reconcile the truth than to have it hidden from me intentionally. Besides," he smirked, "how exactly were you planning on getting this thing without my cooperation?"

"Good point." Dean shoved his worries down deep and locked them away for the time being. There'd be plenty of time to face them once they had the wraith down. "Okay, so... you ready to take a nap?" He asked handing over his flask.

"Smells like whiskey?" he questioned and took a small sip.

"It is,"

He took a larger slug then handed it back, "I don't see how that's..." He was unconscious a second later with Dean slinging him over his shoulder and setting him down in the middle of the grid.

"And a little Faerie Folk medicine," he mumbled then moved to the generator and kept his eyes on the unconscious FBI agent. "I won't let anything happen kid, don't you worry." He nodded and dialed the others one by one.

OOooOO

It wasn't the first time Tommy CrowHawk had ever seen one of the vortices act up. In fact it usually happened at Halloween simply because the veil between worlds was thinnest at that time of year. Sometimes they'd start to spiral around Beltane whenever local kitchen witches decided to have a spring orgy and call it a 'ceremony', but that was a rare occurrence if for no other reason than the fights that usually broke out. After nearly seventy years he still couldn't figure out how people who did their research and knew the history of these energetic centers could be so stupid.

Energy moved in veins of blue-white through a serpentine tube of what anyone would have said looked a lot like heat shimmer, or perhaps a ring of water but for perhaps the first time in his life Tommy CrowHawk could have sworn he saw something within the energy. Shapes, faces, maybe even eyes. His every hair stood on end and his eyes narrowed as the shadows deep inside motioned to him. There were faces and figures in there and though he'd never noticed it before, he was pretty sure they wanted something from him, or wanted to show him something. Considering what he'd already seen this night he wasn't sure he could handle much more but still his feet carried him forward.

Nearing the edge of the ring he leaned forward a slim-ish shadow of an upside down teardrop with pinched and pointed features seemed to glare at him, _eyes look kinda like ... rats eyes._ As he leaned closer so preoccupied with the pointy faced creature he failed to notice the swirling masses that seemed to fight the currents and eddy's and as his hand reached up toward that face nearing the tenuous membrane made by the sealing ring his cell rang. As his body fell, his hand breeched the barrier creating a conduit for the creatures within the phone abruptly ceased.

OOooOO

"Sam? Are you there?"

"Yeah I'm here Dean what's up?"

"I can't get in touch with CrowHawk, I just needed to make sure you were... still... you know." He could almost see Dean shrugging sheepishly.

"On line?" he suggested.

"Yeah! You are aren't you?"

"Yep, generator's up and running I'm just waiting for the signal to throw the switch. How's Spencer?"

"Out cold but fine. The sleep draught hit the kid like a ton of bricks. I'm gonna see if I can get in touch with Elf. Keep your phone on and your eyes open."

"Will do." Sam nodded and felt his eyes bulge wide, "Dean! Wait!"

But it was too late. The elder hunter had already disconnected the line at almost exactly the same time Sam's Boynton Canyon vortex began to shimmer, its increase in activity marked by the occasional flare of lightning picking into the nothingness.

_It'll wait. I don't know how we're gonna be able to see this thing if it hops from Bell Rock all the way over here, without light to see the shadow it's like finding a needle in a haystack blindfolded. Man. This is ridiculous._ Reaching down by the generator he slid the camper's spotlight out of its nook and looked around for the right place to mount it. Just off to the right there were a couple of tightly wedged boulders that looked like they had a good 'V' to wedge it in.

Glancing around from the energy field, off toward the direction he knew his big brother was in, he shook his head moving behind the boulders, looking for hand and foot holds. At the same moment within the ring of spinning energy several different kinds of faces, some of them those upside down teardrop shaped rat-like ones, and others distinctly more disturbing for their similarity to human features in spite of the pasty doughy color and the eyes like school glue and milk, and again even more still, bundles of ricocheting energy that were thoughtforms yet to be summoned. All of them looking, searching for a way out, looking for that living thing they sensed, that coppery soul light that made them hungry and angry for their very state of lack.

From behind the boulders Sam levered himself up and wedged one foot between them, and his other held his balance as he held the lantern pressed between his chest and the rocks while he emptied his jacket pockets and shrugged it off to make a pseudo platform to rest the lantern on. Sweat poured down his face as he stuffed the jacket into the crotch of the rocks then pressed the light source down deep until some of the plastic of the base cracked but the piece of equipment held firm. From his vantage there was no way he could have seen the rage and fear moving through that milieu of faces when he switched the light on and angled it into the wall of shimmering energy driving those very creatures anywhere else in their darkened world between worlds.

His feet hit the ground by the third ring, "Did you get in touch with him?" he asked noting Dean's name on the screen.

"No, he's off the grid Sam, this is so very not good... I want you to use the remote access, light up all three sites."

"Dean... we're all surrounded by lodestone and electrical fields..."

"But our connection is fine. No Sam, something's wrong. Light up all three of 'em then go check on them. Drive the thing to my location."

"What?! Dean no! I'll come to you, we don't even know if the seals will keep a wraith out what if it goes after you instead of Spencer? Dean? Dean!?" Sam shouted uselessly into the dead phone. "Had t'jinx it didn't cha? Damnit!" he cursed running his hand through his sweat soaked hair, "Son of a bitch." He knew Dean was right, the others had been dragged into this. He had to go check on them first.

OOooOO

Right around the same time Sam decided to try to rig up a light in Boynton Canyon, over at Cathedral Rock Elf sat back on a sandstone seat, watching the vortex come to life and growing mesmerized by it.

He could have sworn he heard the phone start to ring but it didn't matter. He turned on his generator and kept his eyes peeled for any approaching shadows. There'd been only one infra red reader and since Cathedral Rock was the second most powerful vortex next to Bell Rock he'd kept it to himself.

Reaching into his pack for his cigarettes and a bag of beef jerky Frederick Elphard McAlister could never have seen the man sized creature of darkness with its dusty flaky rolled in soot skin or its milk and school glue eyes that angled upward at the outer edges as the schade leaned down and whispered into his ear, _"He's sitting on a gold mine and I'm stuck out here waiting for my turn. It's my turn," _slowly he began to nod to himself.

"Damn son of a bitch who the hell's he think he is? He's the one that got all the brakes, he's the one that got to go to college, that got the offer to work at dad's company, he's the one that got the pretty wife, the good kids with good grades... 'at shoulda been mine! I'm the oldest! I shoulda be the one in control... it's MY legacy! Who the hell does he think he is!?" his voice rose and he began to pace as the dusty living slice of time and the stuff between returned to the shadows smiling.

"_Got to take what's mine, it's mine... I deserve it!" _it whispered on the night winds and watched him dash to his truck his face warped with unnatural fury as he peeled out onto the road.

With its obstacle eliminated the schade moved forward, turned the generator on and activated the grid. It had no desire to release either the Foenwyn or the unborn thoughtforms. It had work to do and a plan of its own that had nothing to do with this kind of hunter.

It tilted its head to the side glancing at the shadows on the ground, wondering which would take him to his objective most readily now that it was out of prison, it didn't matter, sooner or later it would get its hands on the children and when it did, it could begin to undo everything.

It took a step to the right disappearing into the shadow on the ground as if it'd jumped off a cliff. These humans were of no concern after all.

OOooOO

"Tommy!" Sam grasped him by the feet and pulled him clear of the ring watching with desperate amazement and a sick memory of just a few years ago when a literal doorway to hell had been opened, unleashing hundreds of demons onto the world. "Oh God..." he shook his head, "Not again." Then pulled his cell and dialed his big brother while he tried to rouse the old man.

Something like a ghostly balloon zipped by his face and by the very description he knew exactly what it was, "Shit! Pixie-rat is right! Son of a bitch!" he balked, rolling backwards as the thing literally charged him and seemed to bounce off his chest leaving him panting and breathless but incredibly grateful, _Can't get in... that's good... that's real good! I gotta call Dean... We're gonna hafta call Shep too._ It tried again and again, batting its otherworldly and immaterial self uselessly against him.

"Are you through?" he finally sniped and returned to trying to rouse CrowHawk grateful that apparently the St. Quirinis Medallion he too had been given seemed effective protection.

"Tommy c'mon man..." _I wonder what our Tommy's doing right about now? _The thought flitted through his head as he dialed Dean and frowned when he was unable to connect.

"Alrighty then," he groaned glancing around the area to make sure that nothing was lurking or still trying to squeeze its way through, then activated the grid. Chills shot up his spine as several things screeched in the night and over the vortex things a series of pops exploded and showered sparks over the area.

"Heh, fireworks," He ducked down, slung the older man over his shoulder in a fireman's carry and deposited him into the passenger seat of his truck then hopped behind the wheel and peeled out onto the road toward Bell Rock and his big brother.

OOooOO

Tbc.

Please R&R.

Thank You.

sifi


	13. Chapter 13

Gimme Shelter – chpt 13.

By: sifi.

OOooOO

_I don't like this, where IS it! _Dean's concentration was so focused on the surrounding area and the young man so very like his own little brother that the crafty approach of the maturing wraith slid by unnoticed. It moved stealthily from deepest shadow to deepest shadow, moving closer to the blinding rose gold radiance of his personal life force, the other one forgotten. The other one was physically weak but intellectually powerful. But this one, this one had both high intellect and physical prowess, it also had a hunter's abilities and even more important a life force strong enough to feed it for years! Reaching the shadow at the back of his leg it moved quickly, before he could sense it.

It slid up around his leg, up his back and around his neck writhing free of his panic slick grip, sliding up his face and into his mouth. It felt his body try to eject it, the muscles clenching, the throat closing but it was too late. It felt him gasp unsuccessfully for air and it felt the body fall to the ground as it situated itself deep inside. There was some discomfort it noticed sensing a seal not unlike one of the many that kept their kind in the vortex, but this body had only one on it, and since it was nearing maturity now, that single seal was little more than a thorn in its side.

Settling snugly around the spinal column it shot tendrils of itself in a starburst outward, some twining up the spine into the hard spongy gray matter of the brain, some outward into the extremities and yet others into that mysterious and elusive house of human life force where it began to feed and grow in strength. In time it would become inseparable from him. In time it would become the most powerful creature in existence.

There was something dark inside this new house it noticed. Something filled with the strength of hate and rage, and as its consciousness began to explore, it began to feel. Those feelings made it even more powerful.

It turned its new eyes to the young man in the middle of the grid and smiled feeling a flush of warmth. The boy was of no consequence, he was not a competitor for prey. In order for it to take its place at the top of the food chain it knew it would have to eliminate any and all competition. It also knew it made the perfect choice. It's host had been ruthless not so long ago, he'd done things in a world similar to the one it had been called from. In that hell made for humans this host had bathed in rivers of blood and pain and tears, and he'd enjoyed it. _It's time to bring that joy out into the world of man. _It thought with human words and turned walking with a smile toward the patiently waiting car on the roadside, leaving all vestiges of _its_ and _his_ other life behind.

OOooOO

End.

Please r&r thanks.

Sifi.

A/N – Thank you all for your wonderful support and encouragement, at this time I think you should know I'm going on an indefinite ficcing hiatus.

I plan on being part of the E/O drabble challenge but other than that, I am required to focus on a few different projects for a while.

I hope to return soon. Thanks though for every wonderful review and for all the joy you've allowed me to share.


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